Don't Let Me Down
by Belita Girl
Summary: Red vs Blue. After a tramautic experience Caboose is left vulnerable and afraid. In the face of an intergalactic war and with O'Malley lurking on the side, the Blues must learn the meaning of friendship and exactly what it means to be a team.
1. Lean on me

Chapter 1: Don't Let Me Down - Lean On Me

Disclaimer: The popular series Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth Productions. Not me.

Authoresses Note: I've recently gotten into Halo and Red vs. Blue so I decided to give writing a fanfiction on it a shot. Oh and in case anyone is wondering this is not a slash fic. I have nothing against slash, in fact I enjoy some slash fics, but I just thought I'd point out that bit of info in case anyone is wondering. There is something I should point out in case anyone is confused: **This story is AU which stands for Alternate Universe in case you were wondering. The plotline of this story will have differences from the real RvB plotline. The characters will be kept in character to the best of my ability.** Thanks for your understanding and please enjoy.

* * *

A cobalt blue armored soldier ran through the dank and dark corridors. He seemed intent on finding someone or something in the jail cells that lined the walls. He checked every cell he passed but grew more and more dismayed to find nothing in them. In fact they were completely empty save for bits of debris that littered the floor. He grew frenzied as he neared the end of the corridor.

Slamming his fist on the wall savagely he shouted out into the silence.

"Damnit! They said that they were holding you here!"

He rested his gun against the wall and fell to his knees. He held his helmet covered head in his hands. His armor showed signs that he had been in a fierce battle. It was scratched and dented in places. The blue paint was peeling in places, showing the brown colouring underneath.

He had just come out of the biggest battle of his young life. He and his teammates had been called out of Blood Gulch to aid their Blue allies in taking out one of the main red bases. They had camped out with a large group of Blues when an equally large group of Reds had performed a sneak attack at night. The Reds took many Blues prisoners for whatever reasons. He himself and two of his other teammates had avoided capture or death but the fourth, the youngest and most inexperienced, had been captured.

When the Blue team as a whole had managed to pick itself up off the ground they all managed to take down the Red base they had originally targeted. However the P.O.W Blues were nowhere to be found. After some elite computer and file hacking every individual Blue team was able to find where there missing teammate was being held. The Reds had been holding them in about 10 different jail facilities, each facility held about 50 Blue prisoners.

When the Reds at the said facilities heard that the Blues were arriving they either killed off some of the prisoners or fled. The prisoners who survived the Reds experimentations or killing spree were now left alone until they could be rescued.

Private Leonard Church finally lifted his head. He was beyond weary of what had happened in the last couple of days. And now after coming all this way to find his captured teammate the facility was deserted. Not a soul was around. Minus a couple of Reds that ambushed them on their way in but the others told him to go in and they'd hold off the Reds.

He couldn't figure out why the facility would be deserted. The prisoners were supposed to be here. Well the ones that had survived anyways. There was no explanation as to why the facility was empty. There was simply no trace of anyone ever being held prisoner here.

He got up and grabbed his gun once more. How was he supposed to tell the others that they had come all this way for nothing?

Church started walking back the way he came when something caught his eye. In the nearest cell there was a filthy mat lying on the ground. However it wasn't the mat that caught his eye, it was what it was half concealing that caught his attention.

He walked cautiously towards it and moving his foot forward swiftly kicked the mat out of the way. The mat revealed a wooden trap door. Church looked around to make sure no one was following him before kicking the door. The door's weak hinges gave way and it collapsed inwards revealing a staircase.

Church tentatively raised his gun and slowly made his way down the stairs case. As he reached the bottom he looked around to see he was now in a roughly crafted underground hallway. He kept his finger on the trigger of his gun and moved forward. He didn't have to go far to find out where the tunnel led.

Church gasped in horror at what he found. He resisted the urge to vomit as best he could. Various torture instruments lined the walls. Blood was present on every one of them. Tables with thick leather straps, presumably for holding down a person, were present. Blood was also present on these.

Once again Church could not find any indication of anyone being here. He gave the room a once over and turned to leave feeling grossed out and disturbed at the measures the Reds had taken. As he was leaving he heard something move in the corner. He whipped around and raised his gun and kept his finger on the trigger. In the shadows of the corner he saw the outline of a body. He moved closer cautiously and turned on the light built into his gun.

He gasped in shock at what the light was showing him. A Blue soldier, darkish blue armor, lay there. His armour was broken and cracked in many places revealing his skin underneath. Blood seeped through these holes. He gave no indication that he was still alive except for the shallow and ragged breaths he was taking.

Church felt his heart plummet into his stomach.

"Cab-Caboose?" He asked in a shaky voice.

Caboose did not answer. He gave a small moan and curled up into a tight ball. Church was stunned for a minute but realized that he had to get his teammate to safety, far away from this hell.

He laid his gun down and crawled over to Caboose. He gave him a gentle shake.

"Come on Caboose. It's me, Church. Come on, I can't move you if you don't tell me what's wrong." He said gently.

Caboose gave a small shudder and inclined his head slightly. There was a large crack in Caboose's visor and Church could see an eye lid open up to reveal an unfocused blue eye.

"Ch-Church? Is that you?" Caboose wheezed. The eye that Church could see had a cut beneath it.

"Yeah it's me. I'm going to get you out of here." Church whispered. He rose to his feet and looked to see how far he'd have to carry Caboose. He was in no condition to walk. He felt an arm grasp his foot. Church looked back down to see Caboose looking up at him with his one visible eye. Tears were welling in it.

"Please…don't leave m-me." Caboose gasped as tears started pouring down his face. His voice was terribly raspy.

Normally Church wouldn't have the patience to deal with Caboose's emotional moments but he didn't have a choice.

"I'm not going to leave you. Now I need to know where you're injured. It's important you tell me exactly where so I can get you out of here without hurting you even more." Church told him.

"The right side of me hurts a lot. My leg doesn't work either." Caboose pointed to his right leg which slightly twisted.

Church sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Now listen to me Caboose. I'm going to lift you up slowly. I'll try and do it as painlessly as possible but it may still hurt. I need you to help me as much as possible by putting some of your weight on your left leg. Your left leg is alright right?"

"Y-yes." Caboose stuttered nervously.

"Ok. Now I'm going to lift you up now. You'll be out of here soon enough." Church kneeled down and moved his arm underneath Caboose's shoulders so that he could lift him up by the underneath of his arms.

"Ok Caboose now I'm going to lift you up slowly. When you get into a standing position I need you to put your left leg down. This is important. Are you ready?" Church asked.

Caboose made a small whimper like noise but made no objection. Church raised Caboose as slowly and carefully as he could so that he didn't hurt Caboose.

Caboose gave a cry of pain when Church moved his arm to Caboose's waist in order to better support him better. Church relocated his arm to underneath Caboose's arm so that he didn't hurt him.

Caboose did as he was told and put his left leg down. It shook slightly under his weight but didn't collapse.

Church was beyond relieved that Caboose actually followed his instructions.

"We're going to go up the stairs now Caboose." Church told him gently.

They made their way up the stairs and when they reached the top Church leaned Caboose against the wall gently.

"Don't move. I'm just going to go get my gun. If anyone comes yell." Church told him sternly.

"No-no please don't l-leave me Ch-Church. Wh-what if they co-come back?" Fresh tears started pouring down Caboose's cheeks.

Church was about to yell in frustration at his teammate but refrained since Caboose was clearly traumatized enough as it was.

"No one will come back. Tucker and Tex are standing guard. Now I need my gun just in case anything happens." Church patiently told him.

Caboose let out a sob of anguish. Church couldn't help but feel bad for his innocent minded teammate. He suddenly felt a rush of anger towards the Reds. How could they do this to Caboose? He'd never hurt anybody. God knows why he decided to join this goddamn war. He didn't deserve this.

"I won't leave you." Church whispered. Caboose stopped sobbing but still sniffled now and then.

Church could only hope and prey that the next people to come by were the rest of the team. As he looked around the empty cells a thought suddenly dawned on him.

"Hey Caboose? Where is everyone?" Church asked curiously.

Caboose opened his eye wide in fear. Church was suddenly sorry he asked.

"They're…all d-dead." Caboose said fearfully.

"But there's no one here." Church pushed. "No bodies or anything."

"I TOLD YOU THEY'RE ALL DEAD! THE REDS KILLED THEM ALL! THEY TOLD ME TO HIDE SO I DID AND THEY ALL DIED! IT'S MY FAULT BECAUSE I COULDN'T HELP THEM BECAUSE I WAS UNARMED! THE REDS TOOK ALL THE BODIES AND DIDN'T COME BACK!" Caboose shouted in anger and misery.

Church was shocked. He'd never heard Caboose shout like that. He'd also never heard Caboose get mad at anyone like that before either. He felt bad he had pushed him to snap. Caboose was now crying all over again and muttering things like 'my fault' and 'couldn't save them'.

"I'm sorry Caboose. But it's not your fault. There's no way you could've saved them, they wanted you to save yourself. Besides if you had tried to save them and gotten yourself killed how were Tucker, Tex and I supposed to feel? You're our teammate Caboose." Church told him sincerely.

Caboose looked at Church hopefully. The tears had left a trail through the blood caking parts of his face.

"Do you mean that Church?" He asked hopefully.

Church looked at his teammates face. The blue eye visible no longer sparkled with the innocence it once had. It looked dull and full of sorrow despite the hopefulness Caboose was expressing right now. Church felt sadness for his teammate.

"Yes Caboose. Every word." Church said gently.

Caboose was about to say something when footsteps started coming from down the corridor.

Church made to grab his gun but realized that it was still downstairs.

"Shit!" He swore angrily. He got up and shielded Caboose with his body. The only way they were getting Caboose was over his dead body.

The footsteps grew closer and Church raised his fists in front of him. He had no other way of fighting.

Two people rushed around the corner and Church launched himself at the nearest one. Church rolled around with the person on the ground before he had him pinned.

He heard Caboose and a familiar female voice shouting at him.

"Church what the hell are you doing?" The female asked.

Church turned around to see Tex standing there beside Caboose. But that could only mean…

"Gerroff me." A muffled voice came another familiar voice from underneath Church.

Church looked down to see he had his teammate Tucker pinned beneath him.

Church got up and grabbed Tucker's hand to lift him up. Tucker 'hmpth'ed and brushed himself off.

Church turned to Tex. "We've got to get him out of here. He needs medical attention now."

Tex was hoisting Caboose up. "Yeah I know. The Reds are all gone and we've got backup outside with a warthog. They'll take him to the medical base."

Church felt some of the weight lifted off his shoulders.

Tucker spoke up. "Come on. He's in terrible shape. We can't waste anymore time." He grabbed his gun and started to lead the way down the corridor.

Tex started helping Caboose along. Church grabbed her gun and took up the rear, hoping that Caboose was going to be alright.

* * *

Authoresses Note: That was chapter one. I have gone through every chapter and combed out the finer details. I also detected some mistakes I missed the first couple of edits. So this chapter is fairly short page wise but the word count for it is pretty high. The next ones will be longer. 


	2. Fears

Chapter 2: Don't Let Me Down – Fears

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue, everything to do with Red vs. Blue is property of Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: Thank you for the reviews. It is much appreciated. Here's chapter 2. Please enjoy.

* * *

Church, Tex and Tucker loaded the now unconscious Caboose into the warthog waiting outside the facility. In the back of the warthog was a medical stretcher. They strapped Caboose down so he wouldn't strain his bones and muscles.

When he was all secure the three climbed into the warthog. Church and Tex stayed in the back with Caboose while Tucker remained up front and reported what had happened to the superior officer.

Tex turned to Church. "Where did you possibly find him? No one else was even in the facility?" She asked.

Church shook his head. "No he was the only one. He said something about everyone being killed and he couldn't save them. I guess he just hid out until I stumbled upon where he was hiding. They must've scared him real bad. He was getting all emotional when I was going to leave his side."

Tex looked at Caboose's still figure sadly. "They're going to question him no doubt. They need information on the Reds bad. Chances are they won't wait till he's fully healed to ask him either. They need answers now."

"But what if he's in no condition to talk? He's in awful shape, physical and mental. He might have a breakdown or something!" Church said angrily.

Tex only looked at Church as he had his mini outburst. "I didn't think you cared about him." She said calmly.

Church opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when Tucker made his way to the back.

"How is he?" He asked quietly. Tex could tell he was worried about his teammate as he said it.

"No better then he was 10 minutes ago." Church said coolly. Tucker turned to face him but said nothing.

Wordlessly Church got up and moved to the front of the vehicle. Tucker looked at Tex.

"So what's his problem?" He asked.

Tex just shook her head. "He's more worried then he's ever going to admit."

They both looked down at the fitfully sleeping Caboose, wondering what on earth had happened to him.

* * *

_It was a cold night. Every individual Blue team had their own tent. Church, Caboose, Tucker and Tex were all settling down in their given tent, but not without some problems._

_"Caboose! Get the hell off my bed!" Church yelled at the dark blue armored private._

_Tucker observed the situation from his own bed. He laughed at the pair of them. Caboose was always getting on Church's nerves._

_"I am sorry Church. I'd give you your bed back but I'm not on your bed." Caboose apologized._

_This only furthered Church's anger. "What do you mean 'not my bed'? I called it when we got here!" Church shouted._

_Caboose in all his innocence pointed out. "But your bed is back at the Blue base in Blood Gulch."_

_Church let out an angry howl and leapt at the unsuspecting Caboose. Caboose let out a strangled yell as Church jumped on top of him and pushed him onto the floor. He fell to the floor and gave a weak 'ow'._

_Church triumphantly looked at him from the bed. "Serves you right you smart ass jerk."_

_Tex angrily threw down the magazine she had been reading._

_"Will you knock it off Church? You know Caboose doesn't understand what you meant. Just leave him alone and stop picking on him." She told him angrily._

_Tucker was laughing from his own bed. Tex gave him an angry glare and punched him in the shoulder._

_"Ow! What the hell was that for?" He cried out._

_"For encouraging him!" Tex spat._

_Caboose got back up and moved himself to the last remaining bed. In a sad voice he said, "Church doesn't like me."_

_Caboose seemed to be the only team member that Tex displayed compassion for. Not that she had any intimate feelings for him, she saved those for Church, she just felt bad for the innocent minded soldier._

_She moved over to Caboose who was currently getting himself tangled in his sheets._

_"Church doesn't hate you Caboose. He's just a dick. He acts all big and tough on the outside but on the inside he's a scared and insecure person." She said calmly._

_"Hey!" Came Church's angry reply._

_Tex just ignored him and went over to her own bed. She crawled into the sheets and turned off the light on her gun that had served as a flashlight._

_"If anyone of you idiots wakes me up I'll kick your asses into the next war." She said viciously before turning over and going to sleep._

_Church looked at Tucker but Tucker only shrugged. Caboose was already snoring gently. Not wanting to stay up any longer the two soldiers crawled into their own beds and fell asleep._

_Hours later a siren started going off. Tex was first to jump out of bed. The other three got up a little more slowly but quickened as they saw Tex rushing to get her gun. She turned to the others._

_"Hurry! That's the alarm bell! The Reds must be around. They have no other reason to be sounding it at this time of morning." She hissed at them._

_Sure enough as she opened the door to the semi-permeable tent Blue soldiers were running past in all directions._

_"Come on!" She said as she ran outside and started running._

_"Hey wait up!" Church called as he, Caboose and Tucker ran after her. They almost lost sight of her but luckily Tucker noticed her black armour and they quickly ran to rejoin her._

_"What's going on?" Came Caboose's panicked reply._

_"Shut up and just run!" Church growled at him._

_Tex was about to turn around and shout at the two of them for fighting but a loud explosion suddenly went of and they were all knocked off their feet._

_Smoke started filling the camp site and Blues were panicking all around. The four teammates got to their feet quickly to avoid being trampled by the other Blues who were running around. However it wasn't the Blues they needed to fear._

_Warthogs mounted with Reds suddenly flew towards them. All the Blues started running away from them but the Warthogs over took them. They ran right over the tents and started grabbing Blues as they were running._

_The four seemed to be out of immediate danger. The warthogs roared in the distance as they put their hands on their knees and tried to catch their breath._

_"H-hey." Panted Tucker. "Where's Caboose?"_

_Church and Tex started looking around wildly._

_"Goddamnit! Church cried angrily. He started running back towards the wreckage of the camp._

_Tex shouted at him to come back but he kept on running._

_"CABOOSE!" He shouted at the top of his lungs._

_There were still a lot of Blues running around and dodging warthogs. Caboose was sure to be around._

_"Church!" A voice called to him in the distance._

_Church whipped around feeling angry and relieved at the same time._

_"What the hell do you think…" Church broke off when he saw head lights shining from behind Caboose._

_"RUN CABOOSE!" Church screamed as the lights got brighter. Church started running towards him hoping he'd get there in time. He could see the outline of the Reds driving the warthog. They looked sinister in the dark._

_Church was about to close the distance between himself and Caboose and push him out of the warthog's way when the warthog put on a burst of speed. Church lunged at Caboose but a Red hanging off the side grabbed him first and pulled him on board. As Church was falling he felt a gun barrel driven into his helmet._

_He heard the crack of metal as it penetrated his helmet and hit his skull. He hit the ground and saw stars. In the distance the warthog carrying Caboose sped off._

_"Caboose..." Church whispered before passing out face down in the mud._

* * *

Church woke up abruptly from his nightmare. He looked around to find he was still in the warthog. However they were slowing down as they approached a large building.

Tex put a hand on his shoulder. "We decided just to let you sleep. You've been tired lately. You needed it."

Church whipped around and his eyes landed on Caboose, still bound to the stretcher.

"How is he?" Church demanded.

Tex sighed. "We won't know till they check him out here." She pointed to the building.

"How long was I out?" He asked. Underneath his helmet he felt hot from sleeping under the sun.

"About an hour." Tex replied.

Church grimaced. Caboose could've worsened in an hour. He looked back to Caboose, worried that he might overheat.

Luckily someone had formed a makeshift sun roof for him. It would protect him from the sun a little bit at least.

"We're here now." Called Tucker from the front seat.

Church sighed with relief and prepared to move Caboose when the warthog stopped. The driver parked it as carefully as possible as immediately Tucker and Church started to move their injured teammate. The superior officer in the warthog jumped down.

"Just bring him inside. The medics are waiting. They know we're here." He told them.

Church nodded. "Thank you sir." He said quickly before him and Tucker rushed Caboose inside.

When they entered the doors a team of medics came up to them. The leader of the medics approached Church.

"Is this Private Michael J. Caboose?" He asked.

"Yeah that's him." Church said as he and Tucker let go of the stretcher and handed Caboose to the medics.

"Thank you, we'll take him from here." The medic said before turning around and leading Caboose away.

Church immediately started to panic. Where was Caboose going exactly?

"Wait!" Church called out. The medics stopped but the head medic told them to continue on. He faced Church.

"He's in good hands. We'll call you when your friend is ready." The medic said seriously. Church didn't want to leave his teammate but stayed put as the medic walked away, following the medics who had taken Caboose away.

Tex and Tucker came up and each put a hand on Church's shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go sit down and wait." Tucker said.

Church shrugged off their hands. "I just want to be alone." He said quietly.

Tucker looked at Tex but Tex just nodded.

"Alright." Tucker said a little confused. Church just started walking away.

"I'm going to find a shower." He said as he walked away from the two of them.

Tucker pulled off his helmet and ran his hands through his brown hair. "I don't understand him. He will never admit he actually likes Caboose as a friend. Well maybe not quite as a friend but he at least likes him enough to worry about his well being."

Tex pulled off her own helmet. Her long black hair cascaded down her shoulders.

"That's Church for you. He never lets anyone in." She shook her head.

"I might as well go find a shower or something as well while we're waiting. I need to relax." Tucker said before leaving in another direction.

Tex bid him goodbye. As she watched him leave the mercenary sighed and turned back to the direction that Caboose had been taken. What on earth had she gotten herself into with this team?


	3. Awful Truths

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 3 – Awful Truths

Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: Thanks for the reviews everyone.

* * *

_The warthog carrying Caboose, three other Blue prisoners, two heavily armed Red passengers and a Red driver neared a large building. It had been a fairly long drive but the Reds were confident the Blues would have no idea where to follow them. Frequent desert sand storms would remove any tracks the warthog had left._

_Caboose hadn't liked the long ride. He didn't really like warthogs. Plus the Reds were watching him and the other Blues carefully. They weren't very nice at all. Not like Donut from the Red base at Blood Gulch. He tried to speak but was hit on the side with the back of one of the Red's guns, hard. It left a crack in his armour. One of the shards from the armour went through to his skin and hit his hip underneath._

_Caboose was confused, and in pain. He wasn't sure why the Reds were hitting him. He looked down to his side to find some blood leaking where he had been hit._

_The warthog started slowing down and parked outside the sinister building. It was all black and had no windows. It wasn't a very high building, only one floor, but seemed to stretch on for a little while._

_The Reds jabbed the Blue prisoners in the back with their guns. The Blues didn't resist. Caboose started to shake slightly as he was getting out of the warthog. Where were Church and the others? One of the Reds noticed his fear._

_"Aww is the baby soldier afraid?" He spat at Caboose. He just stood there feeling even more afraid. He didn't want to speak because the last time he did that he just got hurt. The Red soldier growled._

_"Come on you pathetic excuse for a human being. Get inside!" He snarled. He kicked Caboose in the leg to get him moving. Caboose just tripped._

_"Get up maggot!" The Red loomed over him menacingly._

_Caboose shakily got back to his feet. The Red jabbed him in the back with the gun again and he had no choice but to go with the evil Red._

_Once they were inside Caboose was led past wall to wall cells, most were filled with a Blue soldier except some were empty. Finally the Red pushed him roughly into an empty cell. He fell to the ground and looked up at the Red._

_"Take a good look around maggot. This will be the last thing you'll ever see." The Red hissed. He slammed the cell door and walked away._

_Caboose just lay on the cold stone ground. There was a pain in his right side. He got up and whimpered as he realized the shard of armor that had been broken by the gun had been pushed further into his body. He slowly got up and turned onto his left side. The building was quite cold even though it was in the desert. The only way in and out seemed to be the one door he entered. Caboose looked down the hallway to find that it ended in a dead end._

_He whimpered in pain as the shard embedded in his side caused him pain. Curling up into a tight ball to keep warm he decided that this was all a bad dream. Kind of like the time he had a nightmare about a monster and he went to wake up Church. Church was angry but Caboose didn't feel so scared anymore. He knew he was surrounded by his friends and that made him feel better. This was all just a bad dream that he'd wake up from. It had to be._

Caboose lay in a fitful sleep in his hospital bed. His dreams kept replaying his painful memories. They wouldn't stop. It was all one nightmare he wanted to forget.

* * *

Church walked back to the armor repair section of the base. After taking his shower he put on one of the Blue team uniform track suits and brought his damaged armor in for repair. The base/hospital had a large supply of the track suits. Many of the people at the base were wearing them. There was also a room of washing machines and dryers beside the shower room so he decided to drop off the cloth under suit of his armor for a wash.

He walked along the corridors aimlessly. This base seemed to be equipped with everything. There was a food court, a rec room, a gym, and many others. It wasn't just a hospital base but a recreational base as well. Everything was free for the Blues.

"Hey Church! Wait up!" A voice called him.

Tucker ran over to him. He was also wearing a regulation Blue track suit. He must've had the same idea.

"Tucker." Church nodded his head in greeting. He wasn't really in the mood for talking or insulting people for that matter, even though the track suit looked ridiculous on Tucker.

"Want to hit the gym? Maybe it'll help us relax. Or maybe we can pick up some chicks." Tucker grinned gleefully.

Church shook his head. "No sorry. I'm not in the mood right now. Besides what would Tex think?" He told him.

"Why? Afraid you might hurt her feelings? Or wait, maybe it's you who has a thing for her?" Tucker poked Church in the side.

Church growled and grabbed Tucker's arm. He twisted it behind his back.

"Ow ow ow! Tucker cried in pain.

Church released him. "I don't like Tex that way! Not anymore!" He snared at Tucker who was currently rubbing his arm to try and make the pain go away.

"Well sorry. I just thought you might. But maybe it's her who likes you. I mean she has stuck around since the whole O'Malley incident." Tucker pointed out.

"Oh stop speculating like a gossiping school girl and go to the gym!" Church snapped at him.

"Fine." Tucker said and turned around. "Prick." Church heard him say as he walked away.

"Asshole." Church muttered under his breath. Thank goodness Tucker didn't know the truth about his feelings for Tex. Yes he liked her still even though they had broken up a long time ago. But he certainly didn't want Tucker to know that.

He walked by himself again. He passed several Blues he recognized from recruit training. Thinking back he wondered how his old recruit classmates were fairing in the war. Were they dead, alive, low ranking, or high ranking?

As he walked along his thoughts wondered to Tex. Why had she stayed behind? Not that he was complaining but could Tucker be right about her liking him? He didn't want to get his hopes up though. Just in case she left or ended up not actually liking him. He didn't want to have to go through heartbreak.

He looked down the corridor to see Tex walking up to him. His stomach started tying itself in a knot.

"Hey Church." She said in a somewhat bored voice. She too was wearing the track suit. Although she actually looked good in it unlike Tucker.

"Hey." He said. He didn't want to say too much. Just in case his voice started acting funny out of nervousness or something.

She joined him in his walk and for awhile they just walked in silence. They reached an empty rec room and she turned to him.

"Want to go in? I haven't played a game for awhile now." She asked. He looked in the room. It was wall to wall with all sorts of computer games, pool tables and ping pong tables.

"Sure why not?" He said and they went inside.

She moved towards the pool table and he followed because he didn't really care what they did.

As she set up the game he smiled. "I remember we played this when we first met." He said as he remembered.

She looked up at him, her green eyes drilling holes into his hazel ones. "You remember that?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Don't you?"

"Yes. I was playing pool with my friends when some perverted guy tried to hit on me and I ended up kicking his ass in pool she said with a smirk.

"That's not how it happened! I so won that game!" He reached for a pool cue. He knew exactly where this game was going to go,

"Mhm sure you did. If you actually won then prove it. Right here, right now." She challenged him.

"You're on!" He smirked.

The game started and Church soon found that he in fact was wrong about their first meeting. As Tex sunk the eight ball Church sat on a chair in defeat.

"Fine. You win." He pouted. She sat beside him.

"Oh come on it's not that bad. You still remember how our meeting ended?" She asked.

He looked at her. "Yes you kicked me ass in pool. Kind of like just now." He said.

She smirked at him. "Oh really I somehow remember it ending like this." Without warning she put her face forward and their lips touched. At first Church was shocked but then relaxed and kissed her softly back. When they finally broke apart, breathless, a voice was heard from the door way of the rec room.

"Bow chika bow wow! HA I KNEW IT!" Tucker cried triumphantly. Church and Tex both gave him the death glare.

"Can I take him?" Tex growled.

"Yeah go for it." Church said as he glared at Tucker. Tucker's eyes widened in fear as Tex charged at him. He started running with Tex following closely behind.

Church shook his head in good humour. Tucker would be feeling a world of pain soon enough. He walked out of the room when he noticed the time. His heart rate increased and he slapped his hand to his forehead. It had nearly been three hours since Caboose had been brought here.

He might be alone and worried! Church hurried over to the place where he last saw Caboose taken. Once he got there he looked around for any of the medics who wheeled Caboose off. None were around. He walked over to the front desk where a lady was sitting.

"Excuse me. I'm looking for a patient. Michael J. Caboose, could you tell me where he was taken?" He asked her in a panicked voice.

She started typing something on her keyboard.

"He's in room 156 right now. You can find it straight down this hallway and turn left." She pointed down the hallway behind her.

"Thanks." He said before hurrying off.

As he was walking he saw the head medic talking to a nurse. When the nurse walked off the medic noticed him.

"Are you looking for your friend, Private?" The medic asked.

"Private Church. And yes could you tell me where I can find him?"

"Yes please follow me." The medic led Church to a room at the end of a hallway. "Please step in here." The medic pointed inside. Church walked in to see Caboose asleep, or unconscious, on the bed. His face was quite pale and there was a bruise trailing down his neck and Church assumed onto his shoulder which was covered in a hospital gown. The cut below his eye seemed to stand out against the paleness of his complexion.

"Your teammate has been through a lot. His right leg is fractured and his body is covered in cuts and bruises those however aren't worrisome." The medic led Church over to the bed. Church's mouth went dry as he prepared to hear the worst.

"We found a shard of his armor embedded fairly deep within his side. The cut is quite infected. We removed the shard but…" The medic trailed off and lifted up the bed sheets and Caboose's shirt slightly to remove a bandage gently. The bandage revealed a nasty and green coloured cut above his right hip.

Church cringed at the sight of it and the medic replaced the bandage and placed the bed sheet back on.

"You see. We've medicated it the best we could but if this gets worse then we may have to remove the surrounding tissue and skin. Unfortunately that would be a risky operation because the cut is deep and very close to delicate internal organs. We can only hope that the infection can heal through the medication. We can only hope it doesn't spread to his internal organs. If the infection spreads then his life is on the line." The medic said gravely.

Church felt guilt suddenly course through his veins. When he was lifting Caboose he put his hand on his right side and Caboose had cried out in pain. Had he unintentionally pushed the shard deeper?

The medic continued talking. "He's also very underfed and dehydrated. The Reds didn't take very good care of him at all. He's being tube fed right now until we can switch him onto solid food again. Same with water, he's being re hydrated. That shouldn't take too long though."

Church was distracted. He was more worried about the infection.

"What if the infection heals?" Church asked in a hoarse voice.

"If the infection is showing signs of healing then we have to send him back to your base within two days because this base will be expecting high levels of causalities in the next few days. If not then we can only keep him here for a tiny bit longer. You see there are many soldiers here that need help. We can't just focus on one Private for a long time. Higher ranks come first. He's going back to Blood Gulch soon whether he's healing or not." The medic told Church.

"But how are we supposed to take care of him?" Church cried angrily. "We're not trained as medics!"

"I'm sorry son but that's the way it works. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get to other patients." The medic left Church alone with an unconscious Caboose.

Church sat down on a chair beside Caboose's bed. He looked very troubled as he slept there. Church sincerely hoped he hadn't made Caboose's injury worse. It would be terrible to find that it was his fault. It was bad enough for Caboose to be in this state but if Church had actually had a part in it then he'd feel even more terrible.

Tex and Tucker eventually made their way into the hospital room. They all sat there in silence as they watched the progress of their injured teammate. Church explained to them what the medic had told him and he showed them the cut. Tucker looked horrified and Tex just looked at it with a sad expression on her face.

Caboose unaware of their presence had a pained expression on his face as his nightmares continued to torture his mind.

* * *

_Caboose was sad when he found out he wasn't sleeping. He awoke in the same cold cell on the same hard floor. As he got up he forgot about his injury and yelped in pain. He carefully got up and found his body was sore from sleeping on the cold ground. Actually he hadn't really been sleeping, it's near impossible to sleep in the cold but he had been floating between consciousness and unconsciousness all night._

_He noticed the other Blues in the cells stretching themselves out as well. Caboose felt just as confused as the night before. He called to the Blue in the cell beside him._

_"Hey! You, can you tell me where I am?" Caboose asked._

_The Blue wearily looked up at Caboose. "You're in hell son. Those Reds are the devils. They've been playing with us like a kid magnifying ants."_

_Caboose thought that over and got what he could out of it._

_"I used to magnify ants when I was a kid." He informed the Blue._

_The Blue just sighed. "You'll find out soon enough." He said and didn't answer anymore questions that Caboose asked him._

_Caboose soon got bored and just sat in a comfortable position, keeping off his bad side. He started humming a theme song from a TV show. Normally Tucker and Church would've told him to shut up but none of these Blues seemed to care. In fact they just kind of lay there, staring into space._

_Suddenly two Reds dragging a Blue behind them were walking down the corridor._

_"No please! Don't I beg you! Please spare me!" He shouted in a panicked voice. Caboose watched from his cell and they brought him to the end of the hallway. They kicked open something that Caboose couldn't see. There seemed to be a staircase as the Reds dragged the Blue out of sight. His screams could still be heard throughout the facility._

_Then there was no noise for a minute then suddenly a sound like a saw starting up was heard. Caboose didn't know what was going on. A blood curdling scream erupted from where they took the Blue soldier. Screams of pain were coming from down the staircase mixed in with the sound of the saw. Then as suddenly as the noise started everything went dead. A shudder seemed to go through the Blues in the cells as footsteps were heard coming up the staircase._

_Caboose was frightened but couldn't help but look to see what was going to happen. He wished he hadn't when the Reds came back up the stairs carrying the most frightening thing Caboose had ever seen. He closed his eyes to try and block out the body but it still lingered in his mind. He fell backwards and landed on his wound again as he moved away form the Reds who were passing by his cell carrying that awful and bloody body that was once a living human being._

_One Red continued to drag it outside but the second remained behind for all the celled Blues to hear him._

_"Don't think you won't escape our punishment. You're all going to have a turn!" He snarled and followed his partner._

_Caboose scuttled to the farthest corner of his cell. He wrapped his arms around his knees regardless of the pain in his side. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. The screams still rang in his ears. He could only hope that he'd see his team again._

* * *

Caboose woke up in a cold sweat. He yanked his head up and found tubes on his face. He started swiping at them when hands started to push him back down.

"Calm down Caboose. It's just us." Caboose opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to get them into focus. He found Church, Tucker and Tex looking at him with worried expressions on their faces.

They all noticed he was breathing hard and was even paler.

"Where am I?" He asked in a confused voice.

"You're at the hospital. Church rescued you remember?" Tucker asked.

Caboose thought for a second he had a mental image of Church finding him in that place. He shuddered as his thoughts turned back to there. He lay back down on his pillow. The strength he had just felt when he fought the hands was ebbing away.

"Want us to get the medic Caboose?" Tex asked.

"No. I think I'm ok. Except for my side, it hurts a lot. Could I just ask for one thing?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure name it."

"Could I please have some orange juice?" Caboose asked. The others secretly smiled. Hopefully this was a good sign.

* * *

Authoresses Note: There's chapter three. I hope you enjoyed it. I just wanted to point out that when I'm describing Caboose's situations or feelings I realize that my vocabulary is very un-Caboose. I'd just like to point out that it's not Caboose doing the describing. So please don't get worried that Caboose is so out of character to the point where he speaks way different. I'm trying my best to make his speech as simple and Caboose-like as possible. Thank you. Please review. 


	4. Departure

Chapter 4: Don't Let Me Down – Departure

Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue is property of Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: Thanks for all the reviews. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Church, Tex and Tucker remained in the room with Caboose. They talked with him for a bit but carefully avoided anything that might be related to his experience as a prisoner. Things were uneventful for awhile and they other three noticed he started looking a little bit more comfortable. He wasn't as nervous or jumpy. He smiled weakly once in awhile.

Things were good until a whirring noise came from down the hallway. It sounded almost saw like. Church was just sitting on a chair and resting his eyes when Tex jabbed him with her elbow. He nodded at Caboose who was paling and starting to sweat profusely.

"Uh, Caboose?" He asked his teammate. Caboose seemed to be shaking slightly. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut but couldn't block out the noise. Memories from the P.O.W facility flooded back.

_Then there was no noise for a minute then suddenly a sound like a saw starting up was heard. Caboose didn't know what was going on. A blood curdling scream erupted from where they took the Blue soldier. Screams of pain were coming from down the staircase mixed in with the sound of the saw._

The screams of all the Blue soldiers he saw being taken down below were replaying through his head. He didn't even hear Church telling him he was ok and that it was only a floor cleaning machine or Tex yelling for a medic.

A sudden prick in his upper arm brought him out of his daydream. He opened his eyes to see a medic removing a needle from his arm. The room started swimming and his vision became blurry. Finally he could keep his eyes open no longer and fell limply back onto his pillow.

Church, Tex and Tucker watched worriedly as the tranquilizer took its effect on Caboose.

Church turned to the medic. "Is he going to do that every time he hears something vaguely resembling a saw?"

The medic thought about it for a second. "Well it depends if he can get past his fear of them. But yes he'll most likely react badly for the first little while. How do you know it was the noise that set him off like that?"

"The room I found him in had various torture instruments, including a large range of saws." Church glanced at Caboose who was now completely passed out.

"Hmm. That is tragic. Do you know much about what he's been through?" The medic asked.

"No, that's about it."

The medic looked thoughtful. "We'll need him to talk eventually. Information on the Reds is especially helpful. However it doesn't look like he'll be ready to talk by the time his stay here is over. Could I ask you three to do a favor for the Blues?"

When the other two didn't say anything Church spoke up. "Yeah I guess so."

"We need you three to get as much information form him as possible. He's one of the few P.O.W. survivors and any information form them would be helpful. Once you receive information please report it back to a Blue commander immediately." He said.

The three looked at each and then nodded in agreement. Anything to help take down the Reds who had done this to Caboose.

"Alright, we'll do it." Tex said.

The medic nodded. "Good. Now since he's asleep why don't you three go get some rooms and get some sleep yourselves? You all look dead tired."

Church was about to say something but realized how tired he was. He was exhausted from the events of the past few days and the three of them had been running on almost no sleep.

They nodded wearily and looked at the still form of Caboose one last time before walking out of the room. The medic gave them instructions where to get rooms and they left in silence. A lady at the desk gave them a room each and they tiredly bid each other good night and went their separate directions.

* * *

The tranquilizer had knocked out Caboose but didn't stop his ongoing nightmare from playing. He slept uneasy as it seemed to pick up from where it left off.

_The following week went by horribly slow. The life in the P.O.W facility was awful. The Reds would only give them food and water every two days. It was just enough to keep the Blue prisoners alive so the Reds could torture them and inflict pain upon them. During feeding times the Reds were especially awful because they got to hurt you directly. And since you were in your cell you had no where to go. The pain was unavoidable._

_Caboose sat with his head hung down. He was hungry and thirsty. He wanted so bad to be back at Blood Gulch where he could have a cookie or some orange juice. His cell door opened and he heard heavy footsteps enter. He was too weak to even bother looking up._

_"Get up maggot. You think I'm going to feed you because you're a weak little insect?" The voice of the evil Red soldier snarled._

_Caboose slowly raised his head just in time to see a steel toed boot make contact with his visor. He gave a cry of pain as the Plexiglas broke on contact and cut him below his left eye. Caboose tried to clutch his face but didn't want to take off his helmet. It was safer with it on._

_"Pathetic." The soldier spat and threw down Caboose's food, a moldy piece of bread and a grimy water bottle with a small amount of water in it. The soldier gave a hit to Caboose's shoulder with the butt of his gun before leaving and slamming the cell door shut._

_Silent tears poured down Caboose's face. Where was everyone? And why were these Reds so mean? He made sure no Reds were around as he lifted his helmet and tried to wipe some of the blood away. Unfortunately he heard footsteps coming back so he quickly put it back on and let the cut bleed._

_The Reds carried another panicking Blue past the cells and into the underground. Caboose had lost track how many had gone down there in a day. All he knew was that when they came back up they were no longer screaming and that they were dead. At first he wanted to believe they were just sleeping but the Blue next to him told him the truth._

_Caboose was sweating in his armor. That was a sure sign that it was daytime. Or so the Blue next to him had said. The whole facility heated up to very uncomfortable temperatures in the day and cooled way down at night. The Blue next to him also said that the Reds had special equipment in their armour so that they didn't feel anything. Caboose once tried asking one of the Reds why their armour was special and he got a swift kick to the chest._

_Normally the armour would have protected him but he had been hit so many times that it was wearing weak and the hits weren't being absorbed by the armour. Of course Caboose didn't understand any of this and continued his painful existence as a P.O.W._

_For at least another week he endured all this. He had almost no sleep and became like one of the other Blues surrounding him, unresponsive and unmoving. They had all barely moved from their spots. There was a continuous pain coming from Caboose's waist. He didn't move so that it didn't hurt so much but the pain never seemed to go away._

_He lost sense of time, not that he had much to begin with, and the days and nights seemed to blend together. Until one day…_

_The sudden sound of a machine gun brought the Blue prisoners out of their miserable thoughts. They looked up to see a bunch of Reds running around._

_"Shit the Blues have taken out the main base." One cried as he let his machine gun rain bullets over the prisoners._

_"Don't let anyone survive!" Another shouted._

_Caboose may not have been smart but he had enough sense to know to duck at the sound of gunfire._

_The firing went on for a minute or two. Caboose shut his eyes tightly to block it out. The Reds finished firing and started talking again._

_"Come on we have to get out of here!" One of them shouted._

_"But the bodies, we have to get rid of them. We can't leave any evidence." Another said._

_"Fine. Let's go pack up the warthog and get out of here. We'll come back and bury all the bodies in the sand. Let's go men." A rough sounding Red said._

_Their footsteps were leading away. Caboose opened his eyes when he thought they were gone. He looked around in horror. All the Blues, every single one, had been shot. He was the only one who had been missed._

_He looked up to see that the lock on his cell was shot off. The door was open. The Blue beside him looked over._

_"Get out of here boy. Hide and get away." He said in a weak voice._

_Caboose looked at him sadly. "Thank you." He whispered. His voice was hoarse from not using it._

_He very shakily got to his feet. His wound on his waist immediately started hurting and he grunted in pain._

_The Blue urged him on. "Go hide. Before they come."_

_Caboose nodded and limped over to the only hiding place he could think of. He walked to the cell where the trapdoor was._

_"Where could it be?" He wondered as he weakly stepped into the cell. He put his right foot down onto a mat on the floor and suddenly felt himself falling._

_He landed painfully on the stone floor below. His leg was pinned underneath him. He cried out in pain but gritted his teeth as he heard the Reds come back from above. He started dragging himself over to a dark corner. Hoping they wouldn't see him._

_Voices came from above._

_"Hey the door is open!" One voice exclaimed._

_"Leave it! There's nothing down there we want. Now let's drag these bodies away." A rough and deep sounding voice came._

_Caboose lay in fear as he heard the Reds move heavy sounding things around. Finally they left and no noise was heard. He looked at the saws and sharp objects lining the wall. He shuddered. He wished he could just be back home with his team. Not here, any place but here._

_He was so tired as felt his eyes drooping. At least the temperature down here was just cool opposed to boiling or freezing cold. He finally fell asleep and his last thoughts as he drifted into sleep were, "I am dead?"_

_It was at least a couple of hours but it only felt like it had been a couple of minutes to Caboose when he was shaken awake. He forced his eyes open and his heart leapt with joy as he saw another Blue. A familiar Blue…_

_"Church?" Caboose asked weakly. Church nodded. He muttered a couple instructions that Caboose only half listened to. He was in so much pain now. Church helped him up and got him upstairs. Caboose didn't remember what had happened so well at that point. He eventually lost consciousness again._

The tranquilizer still hadn't worn off. Caboose's memories replayed over and over again in his head as he slept.

* * *

Church was first to get up the next morning. He checked the digital clock beside the bed. It read 10:24 am. He groaned and turned back over to go back to sleep but found he just couldn't get comfortable again. He felt a little irritated as he stumbled out of bed to get dressed and ready.

He opened the closet to find it was full of all different sized track suits.

"Man can they have a little variety?" He thought to himself grumpily.

He found one in his size and shuffled into the adjoining bathroom to Tucker's room. He could hear Tucker snoring through the door to Tucker's room. He rolled his eyes and started running the water. Once he found it at the right temperature he splashed some onto his face to wake him up. As he grabbed a towel to dry his face he noticed his reflection.

His eyes had dark circles beneath them and his light brown hair hung limply onto his face. He had a five o'clock shadow covering his chin and cheeks. He really needed to clean himself up. As he was shaving Tucker walked into the bathroom. He yawned loudly and started brushing his teeth at the other sink.

"Morning." Church said.

Tucker nodded. "Unfortunately." He said.

They made small conversation about the recent events, particularly about Caboose.

"How're we supposed to bring him home?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know. I'll go talk to a medic or a higher rank. We might have to get a ship or something."

"They should just send him home like back to Earth. How can they expect him just to start fighting again as soon as he's healed?" Tucker asked angrily.

Church hadn't thought about that. "I guess it's in the contract we all signed, the binding contract."

Tucker shrugged. "Still it's not fair. Poor guy is going to start shaking and sweating every time he hears a scary sound." Tucker's eye went wide. "And what about the Reds at Blood Gulch? How's he going to react to them?" Tucker asked.

"Umm not too good I imagine." Church replied worriedly.

"And they're watching my alien right now! I owe them a favour after leaving him with them for the time we've been here. We've got contact with them! Caboose has no way of avoiding them!" Tucker cried out worriedly.

"God that thing is ugly." Church said monotonously.

"He's not ugly! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!" Tucker furiously snapped.

Church laughed. "Whatever. I still say it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. See you later. I'm going to go check on Caboose." Church walked out of the bathroom. Tucker was about to yell something at him but Church slammed the door before he could say it.

As he made his way to Caboose's room he saw the head medic once again.

"Private Church we've got something important to tell you." The medic said.

"Is something wrong with Caboose?" Church asked frowning.

"No nothing like that. But we need to send him back to Blood Gulch sooner than expected. There are a large number of injured soldiers coming and we need a large amount of rooms. We've prepared a ship to take the four of you back to outpost Blood Gulch." He said.

Church's frown deepened. "You said he had two or three days here. He needs medical attention!"

The medic sighed. "Yes and so do many other soldiers. Don't worry we will supply you with all the disinfectants and medication you need. Can you all be prepared to leave at fourteen hundred hours?" He asked.

Church sighed in defeat. 2:00 was four hours away but Church realized that even if they weren't prepared to go they'd have to go anyways. They didn't really have a choice in the matter. "Yeah I guess so."

"Good. We'll prepare Private Caboose for transport. Can I trust you to go inform your teammates?"

"Yeah. Wait can I see Caboose first?" Church asked hopefully. The medic nodded.

"But you should know he's still asleep. He'll still be asleep by the time you reach Blood Gulch. We had to give him a heavy tranquilizer. He needs to sleep and get his immune system back up. His infection won't heal unless he has lots of sleep."

"Oh. In that case I'll just go back and get ready." Church didn't want to get in the medics way while they were getting Caboose ready.

Church went back to Tucker and Tex to tell them the latest news of their predicament.

* * *

The ship carrying them home traveled fairly quickly. Church was seated beside the makeshift bed that Caboose was on. He looked out the window to his right. He could see starts and planets whizzing by as they flew through outer space. It made him wonder about Earth. How was his family and everyone doing back home?

He looked over at Tex who was sitting on Caboose's other side. Her arms were crossed across her chest and she was refusing to look in Church's direction. She was furious at him for not fighting a little harder to have Caboose stay in the base with the trained professionals.

"Tex?" He asked calmly.

She turned her head to face him. They were back in their armour so he couldn't see her face but he could tell by her posture that she was glaring at him.

"It's okay. He'll be fine. Besides there was nothing I could do. They kicked out a lot of other people as well." Church tried to calm her down.

"That doesn't make it better! You could've at least fought for him to be transported to another base!" She snapped.

"It's not Church's fault that all this happened. I must agree that there was nothing he could've done." Tucker said as he came up beside Tex and sat down. Church was grateful for Tucker's rare moment of support.

Tex sighed. "Yeah I know. I'm sorry. I'm just stressed out from everything that's gone on recently."

Church nodded understandingly. "Yeah I know."

The three sat in silence and watched Caboose. He didn't look very calm. He was sleeping fitfully again.

"I wonder what he's thinking about." Tucker asked curiously.

Tex looked a little closer. "I don't know. I hope something comforting or something but judging by his actions I don't think that's it."

"We'll be back at Blood Gulch soon. Maybe being somewhere familiar will comfort him." Church suggested.

"We can only hope." Tucker said. The ship's speaker came on.

"This is your captain speaking. We will be arriving in Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha. Please prepare for landing and exiting the ship. Thank you."

* * *

Authoresses Note: That's chapter four. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review. 


	5. Visitor

Chapter 5: Don't Let Me Down – Visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue. It is property of Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: Thanks for all the reviews and kind words. I always love to get reviews. Please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Caboose was moved into the Blue barracks. Sister was waiting at the base for them to return. She hadn't come because she was still a rookie. Church was confused how command asked for Caboose to be taken because he was still technically a rookie as well. Sister was confused about why they were back early but she was always confused so it wasn't out of the ordinary.

Tucker had left to go get his 'baby' from the Reds. As Tucker ran across the canyon he hoped that they were on friendly enough terms with these Reds so that the alien was still alright. He reached the front of the base and suddenly heard Sarge's voice from up above.

"Freeze Blue!" He shouted. Tucker froze. "Drop your weapon!" Tucker sighed and did as he was told. How long was this going to go on for?

"I'm just here for my kid!" He shouted up at Sarge. Sarge was on top of the base and pointing a sniper rifle at him.

"Oh right. It's just you. I thought you might be a competent Blue. Sorry about that." Sarge lowered his gun and jumped off the top of the base and onto the ground.

Tucker rolled his eyes at the insult. "How's he doing?" He asked as Sarge walked up.

"Ah he's fine. He's a strong little guy, reminds me of my daughter back home." Sarge said.

"You have a daughter?" Tucker asked incredulously.

"Yep. She's nearly 23 now. Or she would've been if we weren't so many years into the future. I remember her when she was just a little thing. She had the better punch than any boy her age. I was so proud of her." Sarge said as he seemed to get lost in happy thoughts.

"Ummm." Was all Tucker could think of saying.

"Oh right. Here I'll have Simmons bring him out. SIMMONS!" Sarge hollered.

Simmons strode out of the base with the alien walking behind him. The alien saw it's 'mother' and raced towards Tucker. Tucker opened his arms to hug him but the alien had other ideas.

"BLARG!" The alien cried happily as he chomped down on Tucker's hand.

Tucker winced in pain. Sarge laughed.

"Yep he's a hungry little fella. I put Griff in charge of feeding him." Sarge laughed. Tucker looked behind Simmons and Sarge to see Griff stumbling around almost drunkenly before falling over.

"Thanks again for watching him." Tucker thanked them.

"No problem. We'll watch him anytime. Anything that drains Griff of vital fluids is a friend of ours.

"But he belongs to a Blue…" Simmons started to say.

"Shut up Simmons!" Sarge yelled.

"Yes sir." Simmons huffed.

Tucker looked at the two of them. "Well uh thanks again. I've got to get going back now. Bye." Tucker said quickly.

"Oh just to let you know Donut said he was going over to the Blue base to say hi to Caboose. I swear he thinks he's best friends with the enemy." Simmons said as he shook his head.

Tucker stopped in his tracks. Donut, a Red, was going to see… "Caboose! Damnit!" Tucker shouted and took off at a run back to the Blue base with the alien trailing closely behind him.

"Weird guy." Simmons said as he and Sarge watched him race off.

* * *

Caboose sat in his room. He was feeling a little under the weather. He was in mild pain as the painkillers began to wear off. He heard heavy running footsteps coming suddenly towards his barracks and on instinct started to feel scared.

The door burst open and his heart nearly stopped. It was…one of them.

"HI CABOOSE!" The red said cheerfully. In the dark Caboose could see the red armour but couldn't tell who it was exactly. The voice sounded familiar.

"Umm I am not here right now. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep." Caboose said nervously.

More heavy foot steps starting coming down the hallway and Caboose didn't know how much more his heart could take. He started to shake but was relieved to see someone with Blue armour enter the door.

"Donut? You should get out of there." Came Tucker's voice.

"Oh. But I just wanted to say hi to Caboose." Donut asked.

Tucker was about to say something but a sudden "BLARG!" interrupted him. The alien ran into the room and charged for Donut. Donut screamed very loudly and girly and started running for his life out of the room and out of the base.

"You alright Caboose?" Tucker asked.

"I'm fine Tucker." He said quietly. He hadn't moved from his spot on the bed.

"You sure you don't want to come out?"

"No. I'm safe in here. Right Andy?" Caboose asked.

"Yeah. It's safe in here. Unless the Reds decide to attack…"

Tucker interrupted quickly. "That's enough Andy."

"Yeah yeah. But seriously kid you're safe in here." Andy reassured.

"BLARG!" The alien shouted and started running out of the room.

"Shit. Get back here!" Tucker shouted. The alien just kept running. "Damn. I got to go get him. Watch him will you?" Tucker asked Andy as he pointed to Caboose.

"Sure thing." Andy replied. Tucker nodded gratefully and ran after the alien.

"Don't worry about the Reds. They're just a bunch of dirty shiznos." Andy told Caboose. Caboose just nodded. He just wanted to be safe.

* * *

A day after they had arrived back at Blood Gulch, Church was wandering around. Tucker had told him about the whole Donut incident and Andy had said that Caboose was barely talking to even him. Andy had been removed from Caboose's room and he was in there by himself as of now.

As Church wandered throughout the Blue base he couldn't help but think about his teammate. He must've been pretty spaced out because he walked right into Tex coming the opposite way as they turned a corner.

"Watch out Church!" Snapped Tex. Church looked at her.

"Sorry Tex. I wasn't paying attention." He said in a dazed voice. He was about to move on when Tex put her hand on his chest to stop him from moving.

"Wait a second. I snapped at you and you didn't call me a bitch?" Tex asked.

Church just shook his head.

"Come to the living area for a second." She said. She started walking in the direction of the recreation room/living area. Church out of curiosity followed her. When they arrived Tex sat down in an arm chair. Church did the same and sat in a chair across from her.

She sighed. "I've noticed something Church."

"What's that?" He asked.

"Well you know how Caboose is depressed and scared?" She asked.

"Yes. How could I miss it?"

"Well I realized that he's probably heavily confused about all that's happened. Being the slightly simple Caboose he might not be able to make heads or tails of his feelings. He's probably very confused right now. And I know we all agreed to give him some space and let him be alone but I don't think that's what he needs right now." She said.

Church thought about it for a second. "Yeah that makes sense. But forcing him to talk won't help matters much either."

"I agree. But I don't think we should force him to talk. I think we should let him open up and do his own talking." She pointed out.

Church looked up at the ceiling. He had a feeling where this was going.

"And I suppose you want me to talk to him?" He asked her.

"Well if you wouldn't mind. He looks up to you. Remember how he used to call you his 'best friend'?"

Church let out a breath. Everything she said was true.

"Alright fine. Where is he?"

"In the barracks. Good luck." She said and walked out of the living area.

Church sighed and sat for a minute more. Finally he got up and walked towards the barracks.

Once he reached the door he stopped before entering. _"Should I knock?"_ He thought to himself. He decided against it and let himself in.

Church entered the Blue barracks to find Caboose lying silently on his bed. Church couldn't tell if he was sleeping or not because his helmet was on. It was eerie to Church, seeing Caboose acting so sad. Before Caboose was taken as a P.O.W he had been so happy-go-lucky to the point where he couldn't stand him. Now Church could only watch him as he seemed to move farther and farther away from everyone.

He'd never ever seen Caboose so depressed. Not even when Sheila and Lopez became infatuated with one another. He certainly wasn't the same Caboose who entered that hell of a place by the time he came out.

Church couldn't stand to see him like this.

"Caboose?" Church called softly to him. Caboose made no motion or noise to suggest he had heard him.

Church tried again. "Caboose!" He said a little more firmly.

Still no response. Church was getting a little annoyed now.

"CABOOSE!" Church hollered. Caboose jumped a little from his spot on the bed and curled up into a tight ball. Church immediately felt guilty for yelling.

He moved closer to the bed and pulled up a chair and sat down beside it. "I'm sorry. I just needed you attention." Church told the unresponsive soldier.

When Caboose didn't say anything Church decided he'd have to trick him.

"Hey Caboose. Tucker just made some chocolate chip cookies. We wanted you to eat them with us." Church told him.

"No thanks I'm not hungry." Caboose said quietly.

"Aha! You are awake!" Church said triumphantly. He smiled. Maybe Caboose would start talking now.

"Yes I am awake. I'm not ever going to sleep again. I am going to stay awake for the rest of my life." Caboose said simply.

Church's smile faded. What was that supposed to mean?

"Why not? Everyone needs sleep, besides you like sleeping." Church told him.

"I don't want to sleep." Caboose replied stubbornly.

Church didn't say anything. He was hoping Caboose would elaborate. When he didn't Church decided to intervene again.

"Is there a reason?" Church asked quietly. Maybe trying to be as calm as possible was the best way to get answers out of Caboose.

"I don't want to remember." Caboose said quietly. He rolled over on the bed to face Church. "Every time I sleep I remember."

Church didn't know how to respond. Caboose was talking about the incident no doubt but Church had no idea of actually how to comfort him.

"I tried to sleep but everything kept coming back. If I don't sleep then I don't have to see it."

"Caboose it's unhealthy not to sleep. You need sleep. Maybe talking about it would, you know, help you forget?" Church suggested.

Caboose said nothing but then took off his helmet and looked at Church. Church immediately noticed he was sleep deprived. Damnit! Why didn't anyone bother to check up on him? He had dark circles under his eyes. He also looked pale. His eyes which once glowed with boyish excitement were now dull and lifeless. This certainly wasn't the Caboose they all knew.

"Why did they do those things to those people, Church? Why did they try to kill us? Are the other Reds, the ones in Blood Gulch like them? They've never actually killed or hurt us before even though they have had the chance." He asked. His eyes seemed to be pleading for answers.

Church sighed. "I don't know Caboose. War's a complicated thing."

Caboose looked at Church with those now sad looking eyes for a minute then he slowly put his helmet back on.

"Caboose?" Church asked. He was once again getting no answer. Church found himself getting a little frustrated again. He tried to hold himself from getting angry but he had a short fuse. He was only trying to help and he was getting ignored.

"Damnit Caboose!" Church said angrily.

"Why do you always yell at me Church?" Caboose pleaded. He said it fearfully.

Church bit his tongue to hold back an insult. "Fine sorry." He apologized. The two were silent for awhile.

"Just listen to me for a second ok Caboose? There is nothing to be afraid of when you sleep. I'm here. Tucker's here. Tex's here. Andy's here. Sister's here. Sheila's here. None of us are going to let anything happen to you. Now I know you're seeing all your memories in your sleep but just remember that you're not there anymore. You're here and you're safe." Church explained.

"Would those Reds ever do the things that the other Reds did?" Caboose asked, referring to the Blood Gulch Reds.

"No. They're not like that. Also they're too stupid to do anything like that." Church explained.

"Oh good. Because, I like them." Caboose said. Church suddenly realized that he was talking like Caboose again. The Caboose voice seemed to be coming back.

Church looked around. "So do you want to read a book?"

"I'd like that." Caboose said.

Church smiled as he saw his old teammate start to come back out a little bit. They finished reading the book and Church heard Caboose yawn.

"Want to go to sleep now Caboose?" Church asked.

Caboose said nothing for a minute. "Can I ask you something?" He asked Church.

"Umm yeah go ahead."

"Can you just stay here while I go to sleep?" Caboose asked.

Church was about to say no and leave but saw Caboose watching him intently.

"Alright, fine. But only until you fall asleep."

"Yay." Caboose said and started to get into bed.

Church shook his head good naturedly. Within minutes Caboose fell asleep. Church was going to leave but was very comfortable on his chair. In spite of himself he felt his eyes drooping and he too fell asleep.

* * *

Authoresses Note: Chapter 5 is done. Thanks for all the reviews and support. It's greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. 


	6. Chase

Chapter 6: Don't Let Me Down – Chase

Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue it is property of Rooster Teeth. I do not own Scrabble it is property of some game board company. Possibly Milton Bradley. I honestly don't know but I don't own it either way.

Authoresses Note: Sorry for the long wait everyone. I've been a little busy. I hope I can make it up to you with a new chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

"Hehe yes. This will work perfectly." A rough English drawl said from behind a rock overlooking the Blue camp.

"Are you sure? You know we could always just go back home and play a nice calm game of Scrabble." A second voice said.

"Shut up fool! This is the perfect time to take out my enemies. They're crippled, look at them! They're down one member. They won't be expecting it in the least. Dear Tex will never even see what hit her!" The English voice said and followed up with evil laughter.

"You mean the stupid guy? So what, Caboose is down. What a big help that is. You still remember that they have four other teammates including Tex. Your biggest threat is still there. And what's more is that they have a small child. How can you think of attacking when there's a child involved?" The other voice asked.

"You mean the ugly dog? Who cares? Say what you want I'm attacking now. Come on Lopez."

"Dios mio." An exasperated Spanish voice said as a purple armored soldier stepped out from behind a rock. He was the one responsible for the two voices. Loading a gun he aimed it at the Blue base and chuckled evilly again.

"We will meet once more Tex and this time I will be victorious." He growled.

"Stop right there O'Malley!"

O'Malley/Doc stopped dead in his tracks. "Damn. You seem to have found me. Congratulations Tucker." He turned around to face the teal armored soldier who was pointing his gun at him.

"Shut up you dirty shiznos." Andy said from beside Tucker.

"Drop your weapon and place your arms over your head!" Tucker snarled. O'Malley quickly did as he was told.

"Hey Tucker! How's the baby doing?" Doc asked happily.

"Shut up Doc!" Tucker said. "You just wait till Tex gets here O'Malley. She's going to kick your ass."

"Oh? And what do you plan to do after you kill Doc here? I'll just go to another body and torment you from there." O'Malley pointed out.

"Andy, stay here with these two and keep a close eye on them. If they try anything don't hesitate to explode." Tucker said to the bomb sitting on the ground beside him.

"Sure thing." Andy said as Tucker started to leave back to the base.

"Damn! The bowling ball is watching us." O'Malley said in a sulking voice.

"KA-BOOM!" Andy shouted suddenly causing O'Malley/Doc to jump backwards in shock. Andy laughed at the evil AI's fear.

Meanwhile Tucker had just run into the Blue base. He looked around wildly as he tried to find the others. He dashed into the barracks where he found Church asleep on a chair beside Caboose's bed. His head was hung backwards over the chair's back and he was snoring.

"Church. Church! Wake up Church!" He hissed. Church frowned in his sleep and swatted at Tucker in a tired way.

Tucker gritted his teeth angrily. "Come on! Wake up!" He said a little louder and pushed Church's shoulders. Still nothing.

Tucker was getting quite impatient now. "Church it is very important that you wake up right now! O'Malley is outside and he's trying to kill us all. Now wake the hell up!"

Church muttered something incomprehensible in his sleep.

Tucker was on his final straw. Leaning down to Church's ear. "Tex is in the living room right now. She said she's feeling in the mood. Since you're not interested I think I'll go have a go." He smirked as Church's eyes flew open. He turned his head to face Tucker slowly and angrily.

"What did you say?" He said in a quiet but deadly voice.

"That O'Malley's attacking and Andy is watching him outside." Tucker said innocently.

Church got up out of his chair suddenly. He grabbed his helmet and gun and started walking towards the door.

"Let's go get the others!" He ordered.

"But what about him?" Tucker asked as he pointed at the still sleeping Caboose.

Church looked at him for a minute. "Leave him here. It's safer in here and he'll probably just sleep through it. He hasn't been sleeping to well so he's really tired."

"Should I keep junior in here too?" Tucker asked.

"Um no. We'll bring it with us. It can probably help fight. Look at it this way. Instead of being an ugly pain in the ass it can actually serve a purpose." Church said.

Tucker was about to respond angrily but Church walked off before he could say anything else. Grudgingly Tucker followed him. They gathered up the two female soldiers and explained the situation. Tex grabbed her gun and prepared for battle. It took a little bit longer to explain things to Sister but eventually they just gave up and dragged her outside.

"Here's a gun. Here's the trigger. Only pull the trigger when we tell you too." Church ordered her sternly as he handed Sister a gun.

She eagerly accepted the weapon and swung it around dangerously. Tucker had to duck to avoid being knocked out.

"It's just like the batons from cheerleading!" She squealed happily. Tex grabbed the weapon from her and placed the alien in her arms.

"Here hold him instead." Tex said.

"Yay a puppy!" She cooed happily. They all rolled their eyes at her stupidity. Tucker was about to say something about having his kid called a dog again but Tex gave him a look that shut him up.

"It keeps her out of our hair. You better not screw this up." She hissed at Tucker.

"We don't have time for this. O'Malley is just over that hill. Everyone shut off your radios." Church said in a frustrated voice.

Tex loaded up her gun. "Let's go get this bastard." She growled.

The five of them walked up to the hill. Church was relieved to find O'Malley still being guarded by Andy. Neither of them had moved from the spot Tucker had last left them in.

"It's over O'Malley!" Tex shouted up to him.

O'Malley laughed evilly. "No Tex. It's only the beginning. Get them Lopez!"

Everyone looked atop the rock to see Lopez sitting beside a machine gun.

"Oh shit! Sorry guys I forgot about the Spanish robot head." Andy said as an afterthought.

"Goddamn it Andy!" Church shouted as they all had to run for cover from the barrage of bullets.

The five ran for cover behind another rock.

"What do we do now?" Tucker shouted in a very panicked voice.

"I did not come all this way to just lose O'Malley." Tex shouted angrily. She climbed over the rock so that she had a way to shoot at O'Malley. She started firing her gun but O'Malley/ Doc were already gone. The bullets had also stopped and Lopez and his gun were also gone.

"Shit!" She cried angrily. They all peered around the rock. When he felt it was safe Church ran up to Andy.

"Why weren't you watching Lopez?!" Church cried angrily.

"Well I'm sorry Mr. Iamsuchagreatleader sir but I can only watch so many people at once." Andy replied.

Church threw up his head and yelled in anger.

"So how did the German speaking head fire a gun?" Sister asked Tucker.

"He's Spanish. And we don't really know, he's kind of special that way."

"Which way did he go Andy?" Tex asked.

"They started going south of the Blue base. They had an escape vehicle you'll never catch them on foot."

Church fell to the ground in a stumped way. This was just perfect. They had O'Malley cornered and he got away. Tex flopped down beside him and threw her to the side angrily. Church suddenly had an idea.

"Hang on. Everyone stay right here!" He jumped up suddenly and started running towards the Red base.

"What if O'Malley comes back?" Tucker shouted but Church was already too far away to hear.

He continued to run until he was at the Red base. He put his hands on his knees as he caught his breath but then walked up to the base.

"Hey Reds!" He called up.

He received no answer. "Damnit!" He said angrily. He started walking along the back to see if he could find anyone. There was no one in sight. He was about to turn back when he saw what he was originally looking for. He grinned as he climbed into the Warthog and turned it on.

"You're dead O'Malley!" He said as he pulled out of the Red base and roared back towards the Blue base.

The others were shocked when he drove up in the Warthog.

"And the Reds just gave it to you, just like that?" Tex asked suspiciously.

"Yep, just like that. Now get in everyone. It'll be a tight fit but it'll have to do. Now get in the Warthog."

"You mean the puma?" Tucker asked.

"GET IN THE GODDAMN JEEP!" Church shouted angrily.

They all climbed in and Church could've sworn he heard Tucker mutter 'touchy' under his breath but he didn't bother saying anything. He revved up the engine and noted the directions that Andy gave him.

"Andy you stay here! Tell Caboose we'll be back soon if he wakes up before we get back."

"Right. Good luck and I hope you take care of that bastard." Andy said.

"See you soon." Church called as the Warthog roared off into the night.

The ride was without incident. They followed O'Malley's tracks until the reached a large building. Church stopped the Warthog and they all got out. O'Malley's own Warthog was parked at the gate.

"I didn't think Blood Gulch went on for this long." Tucker said.

"Do you think it's a trap?" Tex asked Church.

"I don't know. All I know is that this place looks abandoned. It'd be the perfect place to kill off O'Malley because there doesn't seem to be anyone around for miles. He wouldn't have a radio to climb into."

"Let's go inside and finish him once and for all." Tex loaded her gun and started walking up to the door. The others followed her lead.

"Who're we killing again?" Sister asked.

"Our worst enemy now shut up." Church said.

"You mean the Reds?" She asked.

"No. Haven't been listening to anything that's been going on? We're going after O'Malley!" Church snapped.

"Oh ok then. Yay go Blue!" She shouted.

"Both of you shut up!" Tex shouted as she opened up the front entrance and stepped inside.

* * *

Inside the Blue camp Caboose was just waking up. His sleep had been dreamless and peaceful. He was feeling fine until he realized he was alone in the barracks. Panic was starting to set in now. He walked cautiously out of the room and checked around the base. There was still no sign of anyone.

"Hello?" He called out to the empty hallways but received no reply.

His heart rate started to go up and he made his way to the exit. He stared at the door for a long time. He didn't know if he wanted to go outside.

"What if my friends are in trouble?" He thought to himself.

Making up his mind he pushed open the door and stepped out into the open. There was still no sign of anyone. He walked out a little further. His only company was his own fast beating heart.

"Relax kid."

Caboose spun around fearfully but relaxed when he saw it was only Andy.

"Andy!" He cried happily and went to pick him up. "What're you doing out here?"

"They had to leave me behind because they couldn't pick me up to bring me along to fight O'Malley. And I'm supposed to keep an eye on you."

"Wait! They went after O'Malley?" Caboose asked worriedly.

"Yeah. But don't worry I'm sure they'll be fine." Andy said. "I mean look at it this way they've got a baby alien, a stupid chick, a psycho chick, a lazy womanizer and a slightly inept leader. Oops maybe they are screwed."

"Andy we've got to save them!" Caboose cried.

"You're in no condition to fight! You can't go!" Andy said.

"Wait right here Andy I've got to go get help." Caboose set Andy down and started walking towards the Red base. As he reached the front he started getting nervous. He was very much afraid of the Reds. He was about to turn back around when he thought of his friends. They didn't give up on him when he was hurt. He turned back around and walked up till he was in front of it. He could hear voices coming from the roof.

"I'm telling you Sarge I heard gunfire from the Blue camp."

"Simmons if you woke me up just to tell me that the Blue's are having a little firing practice then I'll send you over as a target." Sarge growled.

"I'm serious. Have a look with the sniper rifle." Simmons said.

"Fine. Oh look here Simmons. Nothing. No one is around. No Blues, no guns." Sarge said.

"But they were! I swear I saw them!" Simmons cried out in confusion.

"I've seen enough. I'm going back to bed and God help me if you decide to wake me up again." Sarge said.

"Wait Sarge! There's a Blue down there!" Simmons cried. Caboose cringed as Simmons came into sight and pointed a finger down at him.

Sarge came and looked over the edge. "Why it's Caboose." He said in a slightly shocked voice.

Caboose started to freeze up again as the two Reds were watching him. He raised his hand in greeting.

"Err hi?"

* * *

Authoresses Note: Once again I am so sorry for the long wait! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please review. 


	7. Capture

Chapter 7: Don't Let Me Down – Capture

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue. It is the exclusive property of Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: I am so so so so sorry to everyone for the long wait. I've been quite busy but that's no excuse to leave you all hanging for ages. I hope I can make it up to you all with this chapter.

* * *

The entire room was dark as the blues stepped in. When the last person had made their way in the door slammed shut leaving them alone in the pitch dark. For a minute no one dared to speak or move. Finally Tex spoke up.

"Everyone turn on your night vision. It looks like we'll be fighting in the dark." She ordered.

All of the blues quietly followed her order and as the room came into view they took a good look around.

"This is a huge entrance room." Tucker whispered in awe.

The other muttered in agreement. They were indeed in what seemed to be a very large entrance way. It looked like the entrance way from a huge mansion that they had only seen in the movies.

"Let's go get him." Tex said. She started walking forward towards the closest door to them. Opening in carefully she moved beside it with her gun pointing inside. Once she found it to be safe she signaled for the others to follow her.

The door led into a hallway. Various paintings adjourned the walls, they all seemed to be quite creepy or gory.

"O'Malley doesn't have the best taste." Church muttered under his breath but Tex shushed him to keep quiet.

The hallway ended suddenly. On both the left and right sides was a door.

"Let's split up into two groups. Church, you take Tucker and his thing. I'll take sister to make sure she stays out of trouble. You take the door to the left and we'll take the door to the right." Tex said.

Church nodded and opened his designated door quietly. "Be careful." He whispered.

Tex looked back for a second. "I always am." She replied before she and Sister disappeared through their door leaving the males alone.

"Let's get going then." Tucker said. Church opened the door all the way and led the two inside.

They walked on in silence for a little while. Their door only led them through a winding hallway with seemingly no end. Finally Tucker heaved a sigh of boredom.

"How do we know that O'Malley isn't here and this is all just a trap to get us lost in the freaky mansion?" He asked.

Church gritted his teeth in frustration. "We don't. Now keep walking or Tex will have our heads."

Tucker sighed once more but kept walking, not wanting to push Church's temper. The hallway finally stopped at a dead end.

"Well this is just great!" Church snapped out and angrily smashed his fist against the wall. Luckily for him he had discovered the secret staircase behind the wall. The wall moved back before sliding to the side revealing the stone steps to the three soldiers.

"Good going Church." Tucker congratulated.

Church peered his head down the staircase. He couldn't see a bottom even with his night vision on. The stairs went down pretty far.

"Okay follow my lead but be very careful!" Church said as he started making his way down the steps. The very second his foot touched the fifth step down a loud siren filled the tunnel.

"Oh shi-" Church started but couldn't finish as the steps suddenly went smooth to form a slide. The three of them went sliding down the spiraling slide until after what seemed like ages landed in a heap at the bottom.

"Ow." Tucker said as he tried to get up. "I think I twisted my ankle." He clutched his leg in pain. He had been unlucky enough to land at the bottom of the pile.

"BLARG!" The younger alien cried out in obvious distress and in a panic started running around.

"H-hey calm down." Tucker tried in vain to get the alien to stop running.

"BLARG!" The alien cried one last time before taking off down the dark corridor in front of them.

"Oh man. I am so screwed." Tucker moaned.

"Can you walk?" Church asked him as he pulled him to his feet.

Tucker stood on unsteady feet and limped forward. "Slowly. But how am I supposed to get him back? He's just a baby and he's alone in a mansion with our worst enemy."

Church didn't know how to answer. The siren had stopped but that meant that someone had been alerted of their presence. If they walked on they might not make it back to the baby alien in time to protect him but he Church left on his own then he risked Tucker getting caught alone and defenseless with a twisted ankle.

"I think we should go together." Church said. "At least that way we'll be safer in numbers."

Tucker sighed. "Yeah I guess you're right. Can you help me walk though? It'll make things go faster."

Church agreed and helped Tucker down the corridor. They walked on hoping that the alien had tired and stopped along the way but there was no sign of him anywhere. Not even a distant 'blarg' was heard echoing.

Suddenly Tucker spoke up. "Do you hear that?" He asked.

Church listened hard. He suddenly heard what Tucker had heard. It sounded like distant footsteps.

"What do you think it is?" Church whispered.

"It sounds too heavy to be Junior." Tucker whispered back. The footsteps were coming from behind and seemed to be coming closer.

"Run!" Church cried. The two of them waddled as fast as they could down the corridor but the footsteps kept coming closer and closer.

"Running! Running!" Tucker screeched as the two gained speed. All of the sudden they found themselves being lifted off the ground.

"What the-?" Church said as he found himself tangled in net suspended above the ground. Their guns were lying on the ground below. He and Tucker had been trapped in a net! Suddenly British laugher filled the corridor. Though it was cramped Church tried to move himself to face the sound.

"O'Malley!" Church hissed as he saw the purple armour of Doc.

"You fell right into my trap you foolish fools!" O'Malley cried triumphantly.

"Foolish fools? Isn't that a bit redundant?" Tucker quipped.

"Quiet you fool!" O'Malley snapped back. "Oh and I believe I have something of yours. Lopez! Bring the prisoner!"

"Sí." A Spanish voice came from behind them. They turned as best they could to see Lopez's head beside a small cage containing Tucker's alien.

"Junior!" Tucker cried.

"It appears that we have your dog." O'Malley said smugly.

"HE'S NOT A DOG DAMNIT!" Tucker yelled as he started rocking the net.

"Quiet. Now let's see some cooperation. You hand yourselves over and we don't hurt the dog or your girlfriends."

"He's not a-" Tucker started but Church cut him off.

"You have Tex?!"

O'Malley started to laugh once more. "Indeed it seems that you're all in really big trouble."

The two trapped soldiers were silent. They didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Finally Church sighed defeated.

"Fine. Just let him go and we'll hand ourselves in."

"Good choice. Lopez go dump the alien in the desert." O'Malley ordered.

"Wait! In the desert? He'll die!" Tucker shouted.

"We said let him go, we never agreed where." O'Malley said. "Now guards take down these fools and bring them to the solitary confinement cells." O'Malley started up his maniacal laugher as he watched Tucker and Church struggle from their position. Red soldiered guards started marching down the corridor.

"You like my androids? They're red to match your enemies." O'Malley informed them.

"You won't get away with this O'Malley!" Tucker cried. But O'Malley only laughed harder.

"I think I already have. Besides there's no one left to even try and stop me."

* * *

"What do you want _Blue_?" Simmons spat at Caboose. Caboose opened his mouth to speak but suddenly felt himself freezing up in fear at the sight of red armour.

"Well?" Simmons pressed. Caboose's thoughts suddenly turned to his teammates, alone and possibly in trouble. Suddenly he started feeling much braver.

"I-I think that my friends might be in danger." He said, trying to sound brave.

"How does that concern us?" Griff asked.

"Well-" Caboose started but was suddenly interrupted by Sarge.

"Hey where's the Warthog!?" He cried angrily.

With a sudden rush of rare brilliance Caboose blurted out, "It concerns you because they stole your Warthog!"

The three Reds looked at Caboose with a look of confusion. No one had actually expected an intelligent answer from him. Sarge's confusion was soon replaced with anger.

"Those lousy good for nothing maggots. We're going to get ourselves over there and get our Warthog back!" He cried.

"But our only method of transportation has been stolen. I think we should just stay here and wait for them to get back." Griff said lazily.

"But if they die than they might not ever get back and you'd never get your puma thing back. They're fighting O'Malley." Caboose pointed out.

"Hmm good point. Soldiers! Grab your guns, we're going after them!" Sarge ordered. Griff grunted in annoyance yet did what he was told.

"So how are we getting there anyways?" Simmons asked.

"I think I know!" Donut said as he walked outside of the base.

"You do?!" Griff asked.

"Yes. Sister's ship. It's still over in that field between the bases. I'm sure we could fix it up." Donut replied.

"Good thinking Donut. Now lets not waste anymore time. O'Malley might get to the Blues before we do. That would mean that we wouldn't get our revenge on them!" Sarge yelled before taking off towards the ship.

"So you feeling better Caboose?" Donut asked as they jogged over to the ship.

"A little bit." Caboose replied. It was somewhat true. But he would be feeling much better once his friends were safe and sound.

"It's working soldiers! Now hurry!" They heard Sarge calling from the distance.

"Get job Blue! Now I actually have to do work!" Griff complained as he jogged past Caboose.

Once they had all made it into the ship Sarge started up the engine. The loud whirring started to make Caboose nervous as he thought of the saws from the prison.

"Just think about your friends. It's all for them." He mentally assured himself. Ignoring the whirring as best he could Caboose looked out the window from the ship. They were traveling quite fast now. All he could see below was desert. Another reminder of his stay at that awful prison. Moving his gaze from the window he just focused on a spot on the ground.

"We're almost here!" Simmons said. Griff growled but said nothing.

"Hang on soldiers! It's going to be a bumpy landing!" Sarge called from the pilot's seat.

It was indeed bumpy. A large crash was heard and felt as the ship hit the ground.

"Nice going." Griff muttered under his breath as he jumped from the door unto the ground.

"What did you say maggot?!" Sarge hollered from his seat causing Griff to take off towards the mansion.

Donut and Caboose clambered out last and they both gasped when they saw the mansion. It was huge and creepy looking from the outside.

"Why would there be a huge house like this in the middle of nowhere?" Simmons asked.

"Don't ask questions! Now let's go get those Blues." Sarge snapped at him.

"Look there's our Warthog! I say we take it and leave. It eliminates the middle man of doing work." Griff said as he pointed at the stolen vehicle.

"Where's your sense of adventure?!" Sarge demanded and loaded up his gun. "Now come on!" He barked at them.

Left with no choice but to follow the four allowed Sarge to lead them forwards.

"Hey do you guys see that?" Donut cried out. They all looked in the direction of his finger. Suddenly all guns were pointed at the strange object a little ways out into the desert.

"WAIT!" Caboose suddenly shouted.

"What do you mean wait?" Sarge demanded but Caboose was already running out towards the creature.

"What is he doing?" Simmons asked. Caboose picked up the creature and started running back with it.

"This is Tucker's baby!" Caboose cried. "Where are the others?!"

They gathered around the rather defeated looking alien baby. It was gasping and looked exhausted from the heat. Raising a skinny finger it pointed in the direction of the mansion and uttered a rare phrase of human speech.

"Tucker." It gasped out before falling unconscious into Caboose's arms.

They all looked to the mansion and back down to the alien and knew that this battle wouldn't be an easy one.

* * *

Authoresses Note: There it is. Once again I am so sorry. I promise the wait will never ever be as long as that one. A special thanks to DarthVadar21 for sending me a PM to get me back on track. I promise the next chapter will be much quicker and longer. 


	8. Reunited yet Divided

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 8 – Reunited yet Divided

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue; it is the property of Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: Here's the eighth chapter, up nice and early like I promised. In response to the review from char I am stating this so that no one else gets confused. **In chapter three I declared that this story would be an AU story. In case you didn't know AU stands for Alternate Universe.** Therefore I don't necessarily follow the main plot, things aren't that different but they do differ slightly from the real RVB. Thanks to my patient readers, I appreciate your reviews. And before I forget I would like to thank my boyfriend for helping me out with this story, particularly chapter 7. His help is very much appreciated.

* * *

Junior was too far unconscious to be of anymore help to the soldiers. After trying to rouse him several times they took him back to the warthog to keep him out of the sun.

"He's probably dehydrated. We need to get him out of the sun and give him liquids." Donut said as Caboose gently placed him down on a makeshift bed.

"We don't have time for this! Donut! You stay here and take care of Junior! You three are coming with me to go fight!" Sarge said gruffly. He started jogging towards the mansion and Griff and Simmons followed.

"Feel better Junior!" Caboose said before following the rest of the group. As they reached the front door Sarge stopped them.

"We have to do this very carefully and swiftly if we want the element of surprise." He whispered. He crouched down and approached the door and motioned for the three to stay put. For a minute no one moved but then suddenly,

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Sarge hollered before charging straight through the door leaving three very shocked soldiers.

"Umm, what's he doing?" Caboose asked as the sounds of Sarge opening fire on absolutely nothing in the foyer.

"He's practically inviting them to come attack us!" Simmons cried. It was unusual for him to disagree with Sarge and his methods.

"This is stupid! First we get dragged on this stupid mission. Next Donut gets to stay behind and do nothing when I clearly am better suited for that. Finally Sarge fires bullets on nothing. You guys just watch, the guards are going to come running and we'll all be toast." Griff grumbled angrily.

"Okay pansies, it's safe for you to come in now." Sarge called from inside. They walked into the foyer to see everything completely trashed. Sarge's bullets had torn into the walls and left any paintings in their way smoking slightly.

After a long pause Griff spoke up. "Permission to speak freely sir. What the frigging hell were you thinking?

"That's enough out of you Griff! Simmons! Step on Griff's toe." Sarge ordered.

"Yes sir!" Simmons said and soon a loud 'ouch' was heard from Griff.

While the Reds were distracted amongst themselves Caboose took the time to slip off into one of the doorways. He didn't need the Reds anymore. All he'd needed was a ride. Besides they'd be fine, they had Sarge to blow up anything that moved. As he shut the door quietly behind him he grinned at his plan. For once he felt like he was smart.

As he moved down the slightly dark hallway he felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck…like he was being watched. Checking over his shoulder he saw nothing. Shrugging he moved on silently. He felt nervous. There could be anyone coming at anytime and being only one person he might be outnumbered. But his friends were in trouble and they'd risked themselves for him. He could at least return the favour.

A sudden noise made him tense up. It sounded like a footstep. He turned around slowly and released the breath he was holding in when he saw nothing there. He continued walking when suddenly the noise was heard again. He turned around once more and this time called out.

"Umm hello?" His voice echoed down the corridor as if there were suddenly five Cabooses instead of one. Another footstep was heard.

"Church? Is that you?" Again another footstep.

"T-Tucker?" Another footstep.

"Anybody?" Now there was several footsteps. They had quickened their pace.

Caboose didn't look back for a second. He bolted down the corridor as fast as he could. He heard the footsteps gaining speed behind him as they got louder and louder. He skidded to a halt at the end of the corridor and found only a dead end. He was trapped. He whipped around to face his stalker. For a moment there was only darkness but then someone stepped out of the shadows.

"Well well well. It looks like we have a trespasser." A rough sounding Red soldier stepped out of the shadows. Caboose froze up when he recognized the voice. This was one of the soldiers from the prison he was held in.

"Drop your weapon." Caboose heard him growl. Initially he refused but the soldier took a step forward.

"Do what I say or the androids under my control will get you!" He snarled. Left with no choice Caboose dropped his gun at the soldier's feet.

The soldier laughed harshly. "That's better. Now what's a trespasser like you doing here?"

Caboose feeling suddenly brave spoke up. "I'm here to save my friends."

"Ha! You must mean the Blues taken prisoner earlier. That's not possible I'm afraid. You see I'm here to stop you and trust me you're not going anywhere." He laughed again. "You see I've been employed by O'Malley to take care of any trespassers that come my way."

Caboose was starting to feel angry. His fear was quickly disappearing as he looked at the helmet of this Red soldier. One of the very soldiers who had caused him so much pain. He could just imagine the evil look on the man's face.

He watched the man raise his gun and point it at his chest. "Now it's time for you to say goodbye." He said evilly.

Caboose narrowed his eyes. On pure instinct he leapt clear of the bullets path seconds before the gun was fired. As he landed on the ground in a cat like position he took another leapt, this time right at the man. He managed to grip the gun tightly and the Red gave a startled yell. He ceased fire and tried to point the gun at Caboose once more. Caboose instead kicked him angrily in the shin, knocking them both down. They rolled around on the ground for awhile before Caboose finally ripped the gun from the man's hands.

Pinning him down Caboose flipped open his visor. "Remember me?" He hissed at the man. He pointed to the scar below his eye. "Remember this?" This is what you and your friends did to me. Now I'm going to do the same to you!" He grabbed the discarded gun from the floor and didn't hesitate to hit the man's visor with it. Glass from the lens flew forward and Caboose knew it had hit flesh as he heard the Red scream in pain. Blood was leaking from the helmet.

Shaking Caboose got to his feet. He had never harmed anyone like that on purpose before. He grabbed both guns and started to walk back down the hallway he came from trying to ignore the agonizing screams from the Red soldier. As he got back to the foyer he realized that the Reds he had arrived with were now long gone. Sarge had probably led them somewhere in the mansion.

Caboose walked up a flight of stairs and followed the next corridor he saw all the while thinking about what the Red had said.

"He said he had androids. What even is an android?" He wondered. "And he said O'Malley hired him. Why did O'Malley have followers?"

Following the corridor he soon realized that this was longer than the last. He just hoped that this one wasn't a dead end as well. Above him he could hear the marching of several hundred feet. It sounded like there was an entire squadron up there. He hoped that he didn't have to face whoever it was up there. He could take one Red but not all of those people above him. Maybe those were the androids the Red had talked about. Caboose had never seen or heard of an android before and he just hoped they weren't too dangerous.

He reached the end of the corridor and realized that there were two doors that he could take. One to his right and one to his left. He decided to take the one on his right. Completely unknown to him this was the very door that Tex and Sister had taken a short time ago.

* * *

Tex was leaning up against the bars of her holding cell trying to block out the sound of Sister. She had wished that they had just put her in solitary confinement like Church and Tucker but they had felt the need to torture her by placing her in a cell with the brainless idiot.

"-So anyways I asked him if I looked fat and he said no and I said really and he said yeah-" Sister blabbed on.

Tex sighed angrily and gritted her teeth. This was going to drive her into madness. The guard had informed her that Church and Tucker had been captured as well. This was just fantastic. Everyone they had here was being contained. She'd tried to contact them via radio but the cells prevented transmissions. It seemed like all was lost.

"-so one time I ate a watermelon seed and I thought it would sprout a plant-"

Whipping around harshly Tex blurted out "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" Sister fell silent and Tex sighed with relief.

"I can't hear myself think with your blabbering! Now just sit there and don't talk and I'll get us out of this mess. Got it?" Tex asked.

Sister nodded vigorously. Tex sighed once more. "Okay. Good."

Relieved at the silence Tex started pacing to think of a way to escape. The android guard outside the cell followed her movements with the gun it was holding. It had been doing that since they had arrived. It would be hard to escape with it standing guard.

Fortunately a second guard came down the stairs into the holding cell area. A human guard. He was wearing Red armour. It seemed like O'Malley had hired all Reds and had the androids painted red as well.

"Guard switch. Your time's up." The Red human guard gruffly told the android.

"Affirmative." The android said in its robotic voice before walking back up the stairs and out of sight.

"Don't you try anything. We know all about you Tex." The guard spat at her.

Tex sneered but the guard couldn't see because of her helmet. "Oh suck it." She snapped back.

She heard him growl in response but said nothing further. Going to his post he stood there watching the two of them. Tex moved away from the cell door and resumed her pacing.

Meanwhile Sister had found something else to keep her occupied since Tex had ordered her not to speak. Every couple of seconds she making a popping noise with her lips and mouth. At first it didn't seem to have an effect on the other two but after while they'd visibly wince every time she made the noise.

Tex whipped around once more and was about to tell her to shut up but the guard was too quick.

"WILL YOU STOP IT?!" The guard blurted out. "YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME A MENTAL BREAKDOWN!"

Sister once more fell silent but Tex suddenly had an idea. That guard had snapped awfully easily under Sister's annoying habits. Maybe…

"Hey Sister!" Tex called. "Can you tell me the story about the time you went bowling with your boyfriend?"

Tex couldn't see Sister's face but she just knew it had broken out into an idiotic grin.

"Sure thing! So he said put on the shoes and I said no I don't want to put on the shoes because they're ugly and smell like feet and he said-"

"Hey you! I thought I told you to shut up!" The guard snapped. But Sister kept right on talking.

"-and then I don't really know what happened all I know is that I threw the bowling ball backwards and didn't knock out any pins-"

"Shut up! I'm warning you!" He growled. He reached for his keys to open the cell. Tex grinned as she saw her opportunity arising.

"-and the guy was pissed that my bowling ball hit his wife so he took it up with my boyfriend who ended up getting hit with the second bowling ball I threw backwards and it hit him in the balls-"

The guard roughly opened up the cell and threw open the door. "QUIET!" He roared.

"-rolling on the ground in agony-"

The guard lunged for sister forgetting his gun momentarily. Tex took the opportunity to grab it and before he could grab Sister and throttle her neck Tex bashed him in the head hard.

Kicking the now dazed guard for good measure Tex grabbed Sister by the wrist and pulled her out of the cell. Tex locked the guard into the cell and pulled Sister out of the holding area.

"-but you should've seen the bowling guy worker, he was pissed when I accidentally smashed the snack bar display case with the bowling ball-" Sister seemed oblivious to anything that had just happened.

Once Tex had pulled them clear of the holding cell area and they were back into one of the many confusing corridors she let go of her wrist. To Tex's annoyance she was still talking.

"-you'd think that people would've learned to stay out of my way when I was up to bowl but-"

"SHUT UP! We're going to find the others and you're not going to say another word!" Tex snapped. Sister nodded and once again fell silent.

They continued walking along. "At least," Tex thought smugly as she thought of the guard they had trapped, "we actually found a use for her that didn't involve prostitution."

* * *

The Reds had gotten themselves hopelessly lost. Sarge had been leading them down an endless web of corridors that all looked the same for at least an hour. Griff, finally having enough, threw down his gun and sat himself down in the middle of the corridor.

"That's it! I'm not moving from this spot. We're done for and it's all thanks to our fantastic leader." He said sarcastically.

"That's enough out of you Griff!" Sarge commanded. "Fine you just stay here. See if I care. Simmons and I will continue looking for those thieving Blues."

Simmons looked up. "Actually sir I'm going to have to agree with Griff. This is hopeless. We should've just taken the Warthog and left the Blues to stay here and deal with it. Wouldn't that have been less work?" He asked.

Sarge fell into a shocked silence. Finally he spoke in a low and dangerous voice. "So it's mutiny then? Well see if I care. You two stay here to rot and I'll get those Blues. From this point on we are no longer a team!" He snapped.

"Wait sir!" Simmons called but Sarge angrily turned around and charged down the corridor still muttering angrily about traitors.

"Don't bother, he's just being stupid as always." Griff said lazily.

"Yeah I know but he might get into trouble. And what if he does kill the Blues and get the Warthog? Then we'd be stranded here!" Simmons pointed out worriedly.

"You think he'd actually get that far? I doubt it. I say we take a break here and then go back the way we came. Once he cools down he'll come around." Griff said before stretching out his legs and lying down. In about two seconds time he was snoring.

Simmons sighed and prodded him with his shoe. "We don't have time to sleep. We have to go find a way out and then wait for Sarge. Now get up."

Griff grunted angrily at being wakened up but obeyed and grudgingly got to his feet.

"Why are we even fighting those Blues anyways? Don't we always end up helping each other anyways?" He asked in a confusedly way.

"Yes. But don't tell Sarge that. As long as he thinks we're all enemies than it keeps him occupied and out of our hair. Well most of the time anyways, this an exception I guess."

Griff shook his head in disbelief but didn't say anything further. Suddenly he raised his head.

"Hey do you hear that sound?" He asked. Simmons paused.

"Yeah. It sounds like a popping kind of noise." He concluded. Suddenly the popping noise was followed by a loud cry coming down the end of the corridor that they had initially come from.

"WILL YOU STOP MAKING THAT NOISE!?" A female voice boomed. Simmons and Griff looked at each other and then looked down the corridor to see Sister and Tex walking. Tex looked ready to kill Sister.

Griff rushed up. "Sister! What are you doing here?!" He asked.

"I can't tell you that brother. It's top secret Blue work and you're not Blue." She said stubbornly.

"We're here to kill O'Malley." Tex said simply. "Why are you guys here?"

"Here to kill you guys. Oh and steal the Warthog back but personally neither of those things sound terribly interesting and it also sounds like too much work so they'll probably never happen." Griff replied.

Simmons walked up. "Don't worry. Trying to kill you guys would only end up in us getting our asses kicked so we usually don't even try. Besides we could help you fight O'Malley instead. He's the real enemy here." Simmons, the voice of reason as always, spoke up.

"That'd help a lot. O'Malley's got androids and guards stationed everywhere. We escaped from a cell they had trapped us in." Tex said.

"Andriods? Guards? How come we haven't seen anyone?" Griff asked.

"Probably because you're Reds. All the guards and androids are Reds too. O'Malley was expecting us to come and by having all Red guards we'd stick out like a sore thumb. He wasn't expecting you guys to come so you could probably move around undetected easily. In fact that gives me an idea." Tex said as she looked at their Reds armour.

* * *

Sarge had stormed off in an angry huff. "I don't need those traitors! I don't need anybody!" He told himself mentally.

He had left Simmons and Griff way behind and was even more lost than before. He growled inwardly as he thought about why he was even angry in the first place. He wasn't angry at Simmons and Griff so much, it was himself that he was the maddest at. Simmons had pointed out the flaws in his plan and Simmons had been absolutely right. Not that Sarge would ever admit that though.

As he was walking, deep in thought, he didn't notice the corridor coming to an abrupt and sudden end. He walked straight into the wall and fell back with a crash. Momentarily stunned he got back up to his feet and started cursing at the wall for being in his way. But the wall was no longer there. The wall had moved back to reveal a staircase leading upwards. Gripping his gun he began his ascent up the stairs. The staircase wasn't very long and it led to a one cell room. Sarge raised his gun as he saw two people look up when he entered. One was a cyan coloured Blue being held in the cell and the other was another Red guarding him.

"Oh good. You must be the replacement guard. You're late. I should've been on my lunch fifteen minutes ago." The Red guard grumbled at Sarge. Sarge lowered his gun.

"Replacement guard?" He asked. The other Red sighed.

"Just stay here and watch the prisoner." He said before handing Sarge the keys to the cell and leaving down the staircase.

Sarge was still quite confused. He looked at the Blue prisoner and was even more shocked.

"Tucker?" He asked. Tucker looked up and recognized the southern accent.

"Sarge? What're you doing here? You have to let me out! They've done something to Junior and I have to find him!" He said urgently.

Sarge snorted. "Why would I want to help you? After all the babysitting I did for you, you repay the Red team by stealing our Warthog. I see no reason to help you." Sarge said angrily.

"We didn't steal the Warthog! Well I didn't anyways. I guess Church didn't tell you that we needed it. He was the only one really in on it. Tell you what. If you let me out and walk around with me so I don't get recaptured then I'll allow you to kick Church's ass." Tucker held out his hand through the cell bars.

Sarge looked at the offered hand for a second but then accepted it. "Deal." He unlocked the cell door. Tucker stepped out and grabbed his gun which was leaned up against the wall outside the cell.

"Okay. Now I have to find Junior." He said.

"Oh don't worry about him. He's fine. We found him outside when we arrived and Donut's looking after him right now." Sarge said.

Tucker sighed with relief. Junior was safe. "That's a huge relief. I guess we have to go find everyone else and get them to help us take down O'Malley now."

"If I come along do I still get to kick Church's ass?" Sarge asked hopefully.

"Yes."

"Then count me in. We're going AI killing!"

* * *

Church sat in his lonely cell. He held onto the hope that by some miracle they could all get out of this mess but it seemed like a lost cause. They had all been captured and they had no one to help them. The guard had left him for five minutes to just go to the bathroom. It's not like he was going anywhere anyways.

He sighed and looked at the floor. This solitary confinement sucked. He wished he could just talk to someone. Someone to help him plan things out. Someone like…

"Church!" A familiar voice called from the doorway.

"Great now I'm hearing voices of Caboose." He muttered without looking up.

"Church! It's me Caboose!" Church looked up to see his teammate standing in the doorway. His jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Caboose!" He cried happily. But his good humour vanished suddenly. "What are you doing here?" He asked angrily.

"I'm here to rescue all of you!" He replied.

"You're still recovering! You can't be here, it's too dangerous!" Church snapped.

"It's too late. I'm here now and you're getting out of that cell." Caboose said as looked for the keys.

"The guard took them when he left. He'll be back in a second and if he sees you you'll be locked in here too or worse." Church said.

"Then stand back." Caboose said as he raised his gun and pointed it at the lock. Before Church knew it Caboose had blown the lock open.

He stepped out of the cell and faced his teammate. "What had gotten into you?!" He asked.

"I'm so glad you're alright Church!" Caboose said happily and pulled his teammate into a hug.

Church was shocked at the gesture but awkwardly hugged him back.

"Okay now we have to get going before-" Church started to say but was cut off by the guard walking back into the room followed by about 10 androids.

"I thought I heard a trespasser. Neither of you are going anywhere." The guard said angrily and raised his gun. The androids followed in suit.

They were trapped!

"Oh crap." Church said simply.

* * *

Authoresses Note: Wow that's my longest chapter so far! It seems that everybody has found a person to accompany them but the teams are all mixed up. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and just like I promised it was out very fast. This story will be ending shortly. I'd say in about 2 chapters, 3 at most. Thanks for your patience. Please read and review. 


	9. Infiltration

Chapter 9: Don't Let Me Down – Infiltration

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Authoresses Note: I have a couple of things to say. I just want to respond to Hunter 001's and Char's reviews. First I will respond to Hunter's. I apologize if you felt that way about the dialogue but it was needed and there is only so much to describe about a bunch of hallways. As for the length it is staying at 10 or 11 chapters. My writing style is that I usually don't go over 15. And I already have the plot written out for the reminder of the story. 20-32 chapters would be dragging this story on for WAY too long period. And onto Char's. Yes that seems like a great idea for a story. I will be looking forward to reading it.

On a side note it'd be much much easier for me to reply if you're signed in when you review. I'm not asking much but if you have an account at least that way I can send you a reply without everyone reading it.

And as Noir est Monte pointed out for me, Grif does only have one 'f' and I've been spelling it with two. I did notice this in the last chapter I wrote but I felt that I would be consistent and keep it as two. But since that would be lazy I'll go back and fix all the chapters and start spelling it the right way. So thanks for noticing and keeping me on my toes.

* * *

"Wow I never thought that I'd have you in this position ever." Grif grinned from inside his helmet as he gently poked Tex in the back with his gun.

"Quiet or I'll break your face in!" Tex threatened.

Tex's plan had been for Grif and Simmons to take her and Sister 'prisoner'. They were holding both their own guns and the female Blues guns. This way they could virtually move through the mansion undetected. They had just come to the end of one of the ending twisting corridors and were relieved to find that it ended not as a dead end but into a large room.

The four looked around in shock at their surroundings. The room had a high dome roof made of glass so that they could see the sky above. The walls were covered in a red velvet and there were several hallways that lead out of the room.

"What is this place?" Simmons asked in awe. None of them had quite seen such a room as this one.

"This must be the very center of the mansion. I'd assume that we're close to O'Malley." Tex said.

Voices suddenly came out of the hallway opposite to them.

"-And then she said-" Two Red soldiers had just came out of the hallway. The one telling the story paused when he saw the four.

For a second nobody moved but suddenly Grif spoke up.

"Hello there fellow…evil Red guys. We're just taking these two prisoners up to O'Malley." He poked Tex in the back with his gun for good measure. "However the winding hallways have confused us. Could you tell us which direction we should be going in?" He asked.

Tex's mouth hung open in shock. Had Grif just done something intelligent?

"Err okay buddy. Just go through the hallway we just went through and the fifth painting on your left is a full length sized painting of an English General in a red suit. Open it to reveal a staircase that will take you up to O'Malley's office." The one Red said.

"Thank you comrade in arms." Grif said before leading Tex towards the hallway. Simmons followed in suit after getting over his initial shock.

"Wait! Why are you bringing the prisoners up to him? They're supposed to be brought down to the dungeons." The second Red asked suspiciously.

But Grif had thought of that too. "O'Malley's orders. These prisoners are special and he wants to deal with them himself." Grif nodded at Tex and Sister and made a slicing motion with his finger across his neck.

The two soldiers shrugged. "Okay then." One said before they both walked down the hallway that the four had just come from.

Once their footsteps were no longer heard Simmons turned to Grif.

"That was the most amazing thing you have ever thought up." He said in a shocked voice.

Grif shook his head. "Just don't expect it too often. Rather don't expect it ever again. It was a once in a lifetime thing."

Simmons shrugged. "Fair enough. And this way you're whole act about be being lazy will never be tarnished in Sarge's eyes. You'll always be a lazy bastard to him."

Grif nodded proudly. "Exactly."

Tex was getting impatient. "Okay that's great. Now we have to go now!" She said and started walking towards the hallway the Reds had pointed out to them.

"Fine. Wait up though, you're our prisoners remember?" Simmons said as they jogged up to catch up with Tex and Sister.

"I love being a prisoner! Do you get to perform a cavity search on me?" Sister asked Simmons.

Although he couldn't be seen because of his helmet Simmons was most definitely embarrassed and probably beet red. However Grif saved him from answering.

"SISTER! WHAT DID I TELL YOU?" He cried.

She huffed but said nothing.

They entered the hallway to find that it too had a velvet red interior and covered in various paintings having to do with the military.

"Okay let's find that one with the General on it." Tex said. The first few painting they passed contained pictures of a bloody war fought with swords and various dead soldiers littering the fields. Finally the came to the one they were looking for.

"There it is." Simmons said simply. For a minute none of them made a move to open it up. Finally Tex spoke up.

"Give us back our guns." She said. Simmons complied.

"So how're you going to do it?" Simmons asked. "I mean, take down O'Malley that is."

Tex shrugged. "I have a plan don't worry. All I need is for you to keep your radios on."

Grif and Simmons jumped back in shock. "You can't be serious?!" How're we supposed to kill him with our radios on? He'll just jump into someone!" Grif cried out.

"I know. That's why I need to get him into my head. I've been reading information on the AI's that Delta and York left behind. It's information that O'Malley doesn't even know. All you need to know is that I'm turning off my radio and that O'Malley is going to be in my head." She said gravely.

"But that'll make you the enemy!" Simmons cried. "We can't take on you too!"

"You won't have to. I've discovered a way to get rid of O'Malley once and for all. Just trust me and do as I say when the time comes."

An uncomfortable silence fell across the three. "Umm okay. But what will we have to do?" Grif asked.

"You have to do exactly as I say without question or we'll all die here. Promise me now that you'll do that for me. Promise?" She pleaded. Grif and Simmons looked uneasy.

"I can't make this a promise because there's no telling what will happen but if you do as I say then you all have a much better chance of surviving this." She said.

The silence continued but Simmons looked at Grif who nodded. "Alright. We promise."

Tex nodded. "Thank you. Please stay here and I'll let you know when you can come up. When you do, well just be prepared to follow my orders." She said in a monotonous voice before walking up the stairs and disappearing out of sight.

They three waited uncomfortably as they waited for some sort of noise. There was only silence but then-

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" They heard Tex yell out.

"What's wrong?" Grif called up.

"Come upstairs. And for God's sakes don't shoot me." She demanded.

They ran up the stairs to find Tex alone in an empty office. The office was elaborately decorated with a large mahogany desk and high tech security screens on the wall behind the desk. Various guns and weapons dating back to centuries ago decorated the walls.

She grabbed a piece of paper from the desk. "Look at his schedule!" She demanded and thrust it at Simmons.

He took it and read it out loud. "Twelve hundred hours to fourteen hundred hours: lunch. Oh come on! We came all this way to find that he went out for lunch for TWO hours! He's a freaking AI, I mean come on. What does he need to eat for?" Simmons growled angrily.

"Well he did do one good thing." Grif said. The two looked up at him.

"What's that?" Tex asked.

"He left us the information on where he was going to be exactly for the next twenty-four hours." Grif said as he pointed at the schedule.

"Yeah but how're we supposed to find where he's supposed to be? I mean come on this mansion is huge." Simmons pointed out.

Tex looked up. "Of course! The security screens! We know where everyone is and how to get to them!"

"So we should split and keep within radio control. Who wants to stay here?" Simmons asked.

"I'll do it!" Grif automatically volunteered. "All I have to do is sit here in this big comfy chair and watch the screens."

"Who's going to watch the door for you?" Tex asked.

"I'll stay with my brother and keep him out of danger." Sister spoke up. Tex smiled at the younger female's bravery.

"Okay you both stay here. You've got just under two hours before anyone comes back. Besides you'll see them coming. Therefore you have the upper hand. By that point O'Malley will be dead anyways. I'll have him dead before anyone comes up here." Tex said.

"So now that we're sure of not being overheard how're going to do it?" Simmons asked.

"The records Delta left me behind showed me a way to defeat an AI once it's in my mind. It's like leading O'Malley into a death trap. If my own radio is turned off then I can block O'Malley from leaving using a mind shield." She said.

"So what does the AI do from there? And how the hell can you put up a mind shield?" Simmons asked.

"I've been practicing. And as for getting rid of him that's when I need you to follow my orders without question." She said.

"You're not going to tell us what those are, are you?" Grif asked.

"Not at all." Tex said.

"Okay, but we're trusting you." Grif said.

"We've got to get going now. If you need your radio off you should turn it off now Tex. I'll keep in contact with Grif and Sister and report everything they say." Simmons said before heading out the door. "Do a good job with monitoring the screens Grif."

"Yeah and be careful to you too." Grif said sarcastically.

"Good luck Grif. Protect your brother Sister, he needs it." Tex said before following down after Simmons.

"Don't get hurt killing O'Malley!" Grif called.

"Good luck!" Sister cried.

Simmons and Tex walked down the staircase and back into the large dome shaped room. They went practically all the way they came before stopping in a deserted corridor.

"Okay. I'm going to contact Grif and Sister now to find out where we are and where to go next." Simmons said. The radio distorted sound was heard. "Grif. Grif. Do you hear me? Over."

Grif's reply came swiftly. "I hear you. I can't seem to see O'Malley on the screens."

"Then do you at least see the others?" Simmons asked. Tex nodded her head in approval across from him.

"Hmm. Let me just switch cameras. Okay so Tucker is with Sarge. And the other two…Oh my God!" Grif suddenly cried out.

"What?! What is it?" Simmons asked starting to feel panicked.

"Go down the hallway you're in. Keep going until it splits and turn left! Church and Caboose are cornered by a bunch of androids!"

* * *

"Did you actually think that you could get away with it?" The guard asked. The androids were still pointing their guns at Caboose and Church.

"No I didn't think that we could get away with it. I KNOW that we can get away with it." Church said defiantly.

"Idiotic Blues! Get'em!" The Red soldier hollered at the androids who placed their fingers on the triggers.

"Ready!" The soldier yelled.

Church's mind froze. This was really the end.

"Aim!"

And it was his entire fault that Caboose was going to die here with him. He had come all this way after surviving the prison and it was all going to end here. Poor Caboose.

"Fi-" But the soldier never finished his sentence. Gun fire suddenly filled the damp grey cell but it wasn't coming from the androids. The soldier and his team of androids fell forward as the gun fire stopped revealing a maroon armored soldier and a black armored soldier.

"Tex! Simmons!" Caboose cried happily. The two stepped forward, avoiding the bodies of the fallen robots and their leader.

"I'm just glad we made it in time." Tex said as Caboose and Church stepped forward to meet them.

"It was almost too late. But if it weren't for you two we'd be the ones on the ground pumped full of lead. Well the androids were already metal to begin with but we'd have ended up like that guy."

"Wait! I'm getting something from Grif!" Simmons said. "He says that…O'Malley is back! He's several hallways away from Sarge and Tucker!"

"Wait what's going on?" Church asked as Tex ran after Simmons who had started to follow the directions that Grif was sending him.

"It's a long story. Just come on and I'll explain on the way." She said before running out of the depressing cell.

Caboose followed after her. "Come on Church! Don't get left behind!" He said before disappearing. Church sighed and took one last look at the grey stone walls and the body covered floor. A shiver went up his spine and he knew that he sure wouldn't miss this place.

Tex's heart felt heavy. She was glad that she had Simmon's promise to comply with her orders but she knew that Church wouldn't be so easy. He'd ask questions about the orders. She couldn't tell him what they actually were. He'd never ever comply with them.

"So what is going on?" Church asked while running along side Tex.

"Grif and Sister have infiltrated O'Malley's office and are giving us directions to where we have to go through the security cameras. They're spotted O'Malley. He's somewhere near Tucker and Sarge. We just have to follow Simmons who's receiving the directions." She explained.

"So how come you're not receiving the direction too?" He asked.

She mentally cursed. Damn him for being receptive. "I need my radio off." She said simply.

"And how come ours are on?" He asked.

"It's just part of the plan. Don't question it okay?" She snapped.

"Woah easy there. I just wanted to know what to do when O'Malley infects one of us." He said defensively.

"Just don't worry and trust me. Can you do that?" She asked. She turned her head towards his. Even though they were wearing helmets she could tell that they had made eye contact.

"I trust you." He admitted. Tex turned her head away from his out of guilt. He trusted her, he trusted her and she was going to have to break his trust.

Once O'Malley was behind her mind shields she'd order Simmons to open fire on her. Stuck in her mind with nowhere to go O'Malley would die with her. It was part of the information that Delta had left behind. The mind shields would only last for so long though so she needed complete compliance in her orders. O'Malley would die and so would Church's trust in her.

Church was now jogging along side Caboose and having a conversation with him. That was something she thought she would never see. Well at least it was nice to see them as a team for once. That thought made her happy even though they she knew that she wouldn't be around to see the friendship.

"How's your side Caboose? Isn't all the running hurting it?" Church asked with genuine concern in his voice.

"It's okay really. I just ignored the pain because I knew that my friends were in trouble." He said in his boyish voice.

Church was touched. Even after all the times he had made fun of Caboose he still had come all this way to help them. He ignored all the pain he had been through, emotional and physical, to come and save them. He really was a true friend.

"I wish that you hadn't come all this way. It's dangerous and I know that you've been through a lot." Church said.

Caboose was silent. "Well I was saved by my friends when I was in trouble and so now I need to save my friends when they were in trouble."

Church was shocked at this kind of statement coming from Caboose. "You know something Caboose?"

"What?"

"You ARE my best friend."

Caboose smiled in his helmet at the statement he had known all along.

"Okay according to Grif we're almost there!" Simmons cried out. Everyone had mixed feelings about what was going to happen.

_"What's going to happen after I die?"_ Tex asked herself. Worry.

_"Are we going to make it out of here?"_ Simmons. Doubt.

_"What does she have in mind?"_ Church. Suspicion.

_"Why is my armour itchy?!"_ Caboose. ????.

* * *

Authoresses Note: Well I've decided to maybe boost it up to one or two more chapters after the next. New things have just come up that I want to add. I want to thank you for all the reviews and I would like to let you know that I do have exams coming up very very soon. I will not have another update until after next Tuesday most likely. So please be patient and I will get it out as soon as I can.

And I watched episode 98 of RvB and I was so sad/touched at the Caboose scene. I don't want to say it in case you haven't watched it but yeah I just thought I'd let you all know that it's really good.

Please leave your thoughts.


	10. Crystal Explosions

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 10 – Crystal Explosions

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: Here's chapter 10, written while watching the final episode of Red vs. Blue. How appropriate. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter. This isn't the end of the story however.

* * *

"Who's dumb idea was it to have us walk around pointlessly in stupid hallways? We've been here in this setting for the past three chap-" Tucker was cut off by Sarge.

"No time to ponder the mysteries of the universe Blue. We've got to find O'Malley before he finds us." Sarge said his southern accent alive as always.

"Fine. But the sooner the better. How are we even going to kill this thing? He isn't even alive." Tucker pointed out.

"Simple! He's going to go into your helmet while I conveniently yet secretly have my radio turned off. I take you into the farthest corner in this place where the radio's from anyone else won't pick him up and then kill you."

Tucker stopped dead in his tracks. "You're going to kill me?!" He cried in a shocked voice.

"Well sure. How else did you think I'd do this?" Sarge said simply.

Tucker stood there in silence before raising his gun and pointing it at Sarge.

"Oh hey now. Someone has to die. It might as well be you!" Sarge said with annoyance.

Tucker shook his head. "Why do I even try to help you?" He asked no one in particular. He lowered his gun but made a mental note to watch his back with Sarge around.

"Oh don't be offended Blue. It's a win/win situation. You die and I live!" Sarge said happily.

"I fail to see where I win." Tucker said monotonously. He continued walking along the dreary hallways. Sarge couldn't give him a better answer than mumbling under his voice. He wished that the scenery would change soon or else he'd go berserk and kill something.

They walked in an awkward silence until Tucker spoke up. Something was nagging at the back of his mind.

"Hey Sarge. Why aren't you with the other Reds?" He asked suddenly. Sarge snorted angrily.

"What other Reds? I work alone." He said stubbornly.

"What do you mean 'what other Reds'? Grif, Simmons, Donut, and in the past Lopez! Those 'other Reds'! And what do you mean by 'work alone'? All you do is order them around all day." Tucker brought up.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Sarge still refused to talk.

"Your teammates? Hello!"

"Lalalalala! Can't here you! Lalalala!" Sarge started singing loudly.

"Hey shut up! Someone will hear us for sure!" Tucker cried angrily.

"Too late." A British said as a purple armored soldier stepped out a door in the hallway. His statement was followed by evil laughter.

"O'Malley!" Tucker hissed. But that only made O'Malley laugh more.

"Oh you silly fools. You think you could escape me in my own mansion? Silly silly Tucker. And what's this you've brought your Red friends along. How many of you are wandering around my labyrinth of hallways, dazed and confused, just waiting to be captured again and killed?" He taunted.

"We're not afraid of you pansy!" Sarge cried as he raised his gun. O'Malley just laughed.

"I've been eavesdropping for the past little while. Kill me if you want Sarge. You'll only kill this fool I've been infecting. Then I'll be free to infect anyone I please. And trust me, it won't be Tucker. Besides your plan sucked so much I would've laughed and gone along with it just to see how far you would've gotten before you failed. That would've been entertaining." O'Malley couldn't be seen but they knew he was smirking at them using Doc's body.

"So I meant nothing to you O'Malley? After all the time we spent together you'll just let me die?" Doc's hurt voice was heard.

"Quiet imbecile. I rather like that word. Imbecile. It's much better than fool. Either way I've got something planned for the two of you. I'm going to use you as bait for the rest of your team. It'll be much more fun with all of you in one place." O'Malley said as he raised his gun. "Now drop your weapons or I'll just kill you both here."

They had to obey. They dropped anything lethal they had on them. Two androids came and retrieved their belongings.

"Now follow me. These two androids will prevent you from doing anything you'll regret."

"You scum! Your mother was a dirty computer virus." Sarge spat. O'Malley growled before hitting him in the stomach with his gun.

"Watch your mouth!" He said angrily as Sarge was lying on the ground winded.

"Where are we going exactly?" Tucker asked. O'Malley chuckled. Sarge got to his feet unsteadily.

"You're getting your change of scenery Tucker. We're going up to the roof."

* * *

"Hurry! O'Malley trapped them and he's taking them somewhere. He's going up a lot of staircases. It's got to be somewhere high up!" Grif's voice sounded on Simmons radio.

"What's the quickest way? Maybe we can cut them off!" Simmons asked. Grif went silent for a second. Probably observing the computer's map.

"You don't have enough time to cut them off. But I can tell you where you can go to get where they're going quickly." Grif said.

"Okay. Tell me quickly." The entire group was tirelessly running after Simmons who was leading them. Church couldn't help but notice how he was a cool yet effective leader. He'd do well in the army if he decided to stay.

"It looks like he's taking them to the roof! Grif says that that's the only place they can go from the route they're taking. With our route we'll be on a roof on the other side so we'll have to make our way across to the side that they're on." Simmons called and found a hidden staircase that Grif must've told him about. "This will take us straight to the roof that Grif talked about." He said before running up it.

"The roof? What could he possibly want with the roof?" Tex asked.

"Maybe he's a bird watcher." Caboose said.

"When have you ever seen a bird in Blood Gulch?" Church asked.

"Well you wouldn't know would you? You'd have to be a bird watcher to watch birds. That's why you've never seen a bird before." He said, once again in his Cabooseland.

Church shook his head incredulously. "Have you ever seen a bird Caboose? In Blood Gulch, answer the question."

"No for I am not a bird watcher."

"Now is not the time to be talking about birds!" Tex snapped. They had reached the top of the large staircase. At the top was a door that had a large red sign reading 'Roof C'.

"Grif. What roof are they on? We're about to get on Roof C." Simmons asked.

"They're on Roof G. You'll have to cross over that large glass dome roof and it's slightly lower than your roof so that'll give you an advantage." Grif said.

"Okay thanks." Simmons told Grif. Without hesitating he opened the door. The open sky was a sight for sore eyes. From the height of the roof they could see miles around. They were surrounded by sand on all sides but in the distance they could also see some cliffs. That was where their bases were. Where safety was.

"Wow I knew this building was huge but look at the roof. It's a lot more elaborate than the outside." Simmons said in awe.

He was right. Though they couldn't be seen from the ground there were small towers one story tall. They ended in a pointed roof and had gargoyles surrounding them. It was a strange yet creepy décor.

"There's the glass dome. I can see it over there." Tex pointed to her right. Sure enough the glass dome was located about two hundred meters away. They all walked towards it and once they reached the edge they all paused.

"If there's anyone below and they here our footsteps all they have to do is point their guns upwards." Church said.

"Grif says that there's no other way to get to O'Malley. The glass roof separates us from him.

"Then let's go. But be careful and be quiet." Tex said as she was the first to start creeping across the glass. She looked down for a second to see the same Reds that Grif tricked earlier oblivious to her above. She breathed a sigh of relief and kept moving. The others followed her.

It took them ten minutes to cross the dome. It was very large and they moved at a slow rate. Finally Tex gently jumped onto the solid roof. Her heart was pounding, that was scary. All four of them could've been shot down in one go. Caboose was the last one to reach the solid roof.

"Just go straight for a little while guys. The roof will suddenly cut off and if you look down you'll see O'Malley and two androids holding up Tucker and Sarge. O'Malley will have his back to you so be quiet and don't let him see you until you're ready." Grif said through Simmons radio.

"How far should be go?" Simmons asked.

"Only about fifty meters."

"I can sort of see where it cuts off from here." Tex whispered. "We should crawl over to better avoid being seen." She suggested. Wasting no time she dropped to her stomach and started using her arms to move herself forward. Once again they all followed.

Just before reaching the edge she whispered to all of them. "Okay. I'll take the android to O'Malley's left and Simmons you take the android to O'Malley's right. We'll just take them out to shock him and then I'll trap him into my plan." She ordered. Simmons gripped his gun and she did the same.

"What is this plan? Shouldn't we know?" Church asked.

"All you have to know is that you're going to follow my orders without question. Got it?" She asked.

Church was silent. "Church please? This is important!" She hissed.

"Alright fine. I'll follow your orders." He grumbled.

"Good. Now everybody up. Simmons and I will take out those androids." She said as she raised her gun.

"On my signal. Three. Two. One. NOW!" They both leapt off the edge. O'Malley turned around just in time to see his two androids be taken down in a rain of gunfire. They short circuited and electrical charges shot through the air before they both collapsed to the ground still slightly sparking.

"Well if it isn't Allison. I was hoping I'd be seeing you soon." O'Malley said in a false cheery voice.

"Good. Because I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time O'Malley." She said sinisterly as she raised her gun. He raised his own in return to her shock.

"Wait what're you doing?" She asked him confusedly.

"Well I'm going to kill you. What did you think I was going to do?" He asked.

She flexed her finger on the trigger of her gun as his laughter filled the air. It was a very triumphant laugh as he realized what she had planned all along.

"Allison you give me no credit!" He chuckled. "Honestly you think I hadn't thought of what you were going to do?"

"And what was I going to do?" She asked. She could at least try and play it like she didn't know what he was talking about.

"You wanted me to infect you. Yes I understand now. You wanted me to infect you so that one of your little cronies could shoot you and kill me. Clever but not clever enough." He said, his gun was still raised and pointed at her chest.

"What's he talking about Tex?" Church asked as he jumped down the edge to join her and an equally confused Simmons. Caboose remained up above.

"You mean that you didn't even tell them your plan? Dear, dear I'm surprised at you. Your own team too." He shook his head in mock sympathy.

"What was the plan?" Church pressed. Tex remained silent.

"Oh go ahead you might as well tell them I already know. Or better yet I'll tell them because it'll be much more hurtful to them if they have to hear it from me. Tex had found out a way to destroy me. One that didn't include the rest of you fools turning off your radios. She thought that I would infect her at the first chance I got. There she would trap me in her mind using mind shields so that I'd have no where to go when she ordered one of you to kill her. Genius really but not genius enough." He said and gave his gun a quick jab into the air.

"Now that they know your betrayal and such you're all going to die horrible deaths. Too bad you couldn't have all ended on a better note. But blame Tex here when you all die miserably because she didn't trust you enough to tell you the plan. Now Tex prepare to die." He almost had his finger on the trigger and just as he nearly pulled it-

"NOT SO FAST O'MALLEY!" Sarge came out of nowhere. Since the androids were no longer functioning he leapt forward and crashed into O'Malley sending the fired rounds into the air away from everyone.

"I'll kill you." O'Malley hissed as he struggled beneath Sarge.

"Ha ha. You've just been Sarged dirt bag! He cried out triumphantly.

"Nice job sir." Simmons said from the side.

"Kiss ass." Grif said over his radio.

"Hold him down. He's not going to infect anybody after he gave away how to defeat him. Face it O'Malley, you're trapped." Tex said as he was pinned to the ground.

"You'll pay for this Tex!" He snarled.

"Let's take him up above. Church and Simmons get up there to help Caboose lift him and hold him down." She ordered.

"Oh is this your new plan?" Church asked in a snarky voice.

"I had to do what I had to do!" She replied.

"Whatever." He said simply before climbing up and waiting for Tex and Sarge to lift O'Malley. Once he was up above they both jumped up.

"Now what do we do?" Simmons asked.

"We'll have to find something that can extract an AI from someone and destroy it. Maybe Grif can find something for us. For now let's bring him to the roof exit back over the dome roof. The one over there is locked from the inside." Tex said and they started to trek back to the roof.

O'Malley was silent the entire way. That made Tex slightly nervous. She knew that he must be planning something.

"Don't even try anything, you're trapped." She told him. He just chuckled without giving her a response.

She growled inwardly at not being able to know what he was planning. They were just about to cross the dome roof when suddenly O'Malley burst into loud laughter. His radio sound suddenly went off.

"Come my minions of androids! They're trapped and are waiting for you to get them! Come from all Roof exits!" He started to laugh again as the six frantically reached for their guns.

They stood in shock however as they saw something very bad.

"Oh. Crap." Church said as hundreds of androids just started pouring in from all directions.

"RUN!" Tex shouted and all six ran for cover from the sudden gunfire. They managed to find one of the towers they saw earlier that wasn't surrounded by the androids. However they were moving in on them fast and they wouldn't be able to stay there for much longer.

"What do we do now?" Simmons asked as he started to panic. They were behind a tower with a giant android army coming in on them and the only place they had to go was down the edge of the building which was behind them.

"We're trapped." Church said dully.

"The way I see it there's only two things we can do. Jump or fight. And I don't fancy large heights so I see only one option I'm willing to take." Sarge said as he loaded up his gun.

"You cannot seriously be considering going out there." Church said just as Sarge started yelling nonsense at the top of his lungs and rushed out firing his gun in random directions.

"Yes he considered going out there." Church finished.

"Yeah he did the exact same thing when he came into the mansion." Simmons said. "Except this time it came in handy."

"I'm going out there. Some ones got to climb up top this tower and stay partially hidden but snipe anyone who's attacking us." Tex said before running out.

"I'll do it." Simmons said as he started climbing up the small tower using the gargoyles as a way to lift himself up.

Church looked at Caboose. "Well Caboose, wish me luck. And if you decide to go out there too then be careful."

"Hey what about me?" Tucker asked offended. Church turned to him.

"Well Tucker…" He started but paused.

"You don't have anything nice to say to me. No 'good luck' or 'be careful'?" He asked.

"I'll think about that one." He said as he started to run out. But he turned back just as a bullet shot past the tower taking a chip out of the wall.

"Don't die. Because you have a kid, and he needs you." Church said before he disappeared into the craziness.

"Well that was probably the kindest thing he ever said to me." Tucker said as he ran out into the fray as well. Caboose looked at the two and decided that he would be more helpful fighting.

It was pure chaos. By sheer luck the now allied Reds and Blues hadn't been hit by the bullets that were bombarding them. Hundreds of red androids were lined up and just shooting. Tex was shouting at everyone to just lay low. They androids would have to run out of bullets sooner or later. The second they had to reload they'd strike and try to take out as many as possible.

Sure enough all androids, as they were all programmed the exact same way, had to reload all at once. That's when Tex ordered her side to strike back. All six soldiers opened fired on the androids, successfully taking out a third or so in total. But the remaining androids all reloaded and things returned back to their hectic state.

Tex dodged the bullets as she tried to find O'Malley. She needed to find him in order to get the androids to stop shooting at them. They could use him as a bargaining chip. But finding him was the problem at hand. She thought she saw a glimpse of purple through the sea of red and like a fly attracted to light she was after it. She managed to sneak through the androids and sure enough O'Malley was running across the dome roof.

She gave chase and shouted angrily at him.

"O'MALLEY YOU COWARD! COME AND FIGHT!" She shouted. She caught his attention and he turned to face her.

"So this is it Tex. A showdown between me and you." He said. He wasn't laughing anymore. The scene was very tense and serious.

"Yeah. Just you and me." She said. In the background the androids had to stop to reload once more and she heard gunfire coming from her side. She hoped that enough of the androids were taken out. She heard someone give a cry of pain and she turned around for a split second to see who was hurt but O'Malley used this as his chance to shoot.

She whipped her head around expecting to feel the bullets pierce her body but instead fell to the ground with a crash.

"Damn you to hell!" O'Malley cursed. Tex opened her eyes to find Church helping her up. He had pushed them both to the ground to avoid the bullets.

"You shouldn't be here! This battle is between me and him." She told Church.

"I just saved your life so I think a thank you would've been much more kind."

"SILENCE! You're both sickening. I'm going to kill both of you up here right now." He raised his gun once more when suddenly his head convulsed.

"I don't think you should hurt them. They're clearly in love." Doc's voice was heard speaking.

"Shut up! Since when has your opinion mattered? I'll let them be together in death! And that's as far as my kindness goes." O'Malley spat back.

"You don't understand me. I really don't think that you should kill them. In fact you're not going to kill them." Doc's voice became slightly sinister.

"Wait…what're you…NO! STOP IT! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" O'Malley cried as Doc's body started to writhe and struggle.

"What's happening?" Church asked.

"Doc is…trapping O'Malley in his skull!" Tex said happily.

"Go you two. Go back through the door you came in. I'm setting off this grenade in five minutes exactly. Get the others and get take care of the rest of the androids somehow." Doc said.

They both nodded. "Thank you Doc." Tex said.

"It's the least I can do. Now go!" He ordered and the two took off towards the rest of the androids and their friends.

"Everyone come on! We've got to get out of here!" Tex shouted. The other four started running towards the glass dome. Simmons was being helped by Sarge but they were still going fast. Tucker and Caboose were running together they started to cross the glass dome and were followed by Sarge and Simmons.

"Leave the androids to me." Church whispered to Tex.

"But how can you do that?" She asked.

He smiled grimly. "Just trust me." He said before running off. She could only watch him go before she started to run across the dome herself.

"In one minute it's going to be set off!" Doc called as she passed.

"Please know what you're doing Church." She whispered to herself.

The androids were reloading when Church ran past them. There was only about one fifth remaining of the original amount.

"Hey metal heads!" He called out to them. They all raised their mechanical heads at once. "Come and get me!" He shouted before taking off towards the glass dome.

Their mechanical legs were moving at a fairly fast speed but Church was worried that they wouldn't all make it to the glass roof in time. Luckily they were right on his tail as he started to run across the dome. The second his foot hit the glass Doc pulled the pin on the grenade.

_Ten_

The first of the androids marched on the glass. Church was running as fast as he could.

_Nine_

Tex and the others were yelling at him to hurry up.

_Eight_

His muscles were aching after all the running he had been doing.

_Seven_

Things seemed to be going so slowly. He could see Doc at the top of the dome, grenade in hand.

_Six_

Most of the androids were on the roof. The glass seemed to groan slightly under all their weight.

_Five_

He passed Doc and whispered a quick thanks to him as he passed.

_Four_

All androids were on the glass. Some were nearing the center.

_Three_

Church didn't think he'd make it in time. They were so close but so far away it seemed.

_Two_

The androids were now all in the center of the dome. Church took a flying leap towards his friends.

_One_

The grenade went off in Doc's hand and both he and O'Malley cried out in pain. O'Malley's data was being erased completely as the glass roof exploded. Shards of glass flew everywhere completely taking out the androids. The sunlight hit the shards creating rainbows of lights to be reflected. Finally the roof caved in taking down Doc, O'Malley and nearly a hundred androids.

Church felt himself falling as the glass whipped past him. He first though was that he didn't make it as the sensation of falling started but then something grabbed his arm. He looked up to see Tucker clutching his arm with both hands and being dangled by one foot. Caboose was holding onto his foot.

The other three helped the chain of Blues up. Church felt himself release the breath he hadn't known he was holding in as his foot hit the solid ground.

"That was the stupidest thing anyone's ever done!" Tex cried out but she held his body in her arms tightly.

"You've got balls Private!" Sarge said. Simmons who was being held up by Sarge nodded.

Church took a couple of breaths but turned to Tucker. "Thanks man. You saved my life. You too Caboose." He said. His two teammates glowed.

"Do you think he's dead?" Tex asked as she looked over the edge. Everything below was completely destroyed.

"Oh he's dead alright." Grif spoke up over the radio.

"How do you know?" Simmons asked.

"Because when you took him down all the androids went offline. He had them under his own control and when he died, they died." Grif spoke up.

Tex smiled. After all this time everyone was free of O'Malley in their lives.

"So what happened to you?" Church asked Simmons.

"I was sitting atop a gargoyle and a stray bullet hit it and it came tumbling down with me still on it. The gargoyle landed on my ankle. I don't think it's broken but it's swollen for sure." Simmons said.

"At least that was the worst of our injuries." Tucker said. Church had to agree with him.

"Wait a second guys. What ever happened to Donut?" Simmons asked. They all pasued and ran to the edge of the roof. Leaning over they could see the Warthog down below and Donut was-

"GET OFF ME!" He cried as Junior chomped on his arm. All six started to laugh.

"He must've been hungry." Tucker laughed.

* * *

Authoresses Note: This is my longest ever! I'm quite proud of it. But this isn't the end. I've still got a couple more things to do to add some more chapters on to this story. Who knows maybe the small arch I have planned will go into a larger arch. Only time will tell. Anyways I worked hard on this chapter and your reviews would be very appreciated. Oh and I don't know if anyone noticed but I made a feeble attempt to break the fourth wall. Don't ask why but I found it amusing. Haha. See if you notice it. It's near the beginning. 


	11. Let's Talk Things Out

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 11 – Let's Talk Things Out

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: The series may have ended but that doesn't mean that this story has to. I wonder where this new arch will take me. Oh well, either way this story will be lengthened. Thanks to all my patient reviewers.

* * *

The group of six was met by an excited Grif and Sister. It wasn't surprising to see Sister excited, she was always excited, however Grif didn't get worked up about anything so everyone was a little shocked to see that. When pressed about it by Simmons he just said it was because he didn't have to do anymore work because O'Malley was defeated finally. However they all secretly knew that he was just secretly taking part in the glory. He had done a lot of work in his own right, even if he wasn't keen on taking the praise or pleasure from it. He had a reputation to withhold.

Tex went ahead to the wreckage where some hundred androids lay in pieces to confirm that O'Malley was gone. Church and Sarge also joined her. As the leaders of their respective teams they needed to be the ones to confirm it to their troops. In the middle of it all they found Doc's body, or what reminded of it anyways. Despite their grisly find Tex managed to run an AI scan which came out negative. But she didn't need to run it, she claimed she could just feel that he was gone. After having him in her for so long she had grown accustomed to feeling his computer presence. She already knew that O'Malley was dead. She knew the second that the grenade went off.

They muttered a silent 'thank you' to Doc each as they left. He had been responsible for saving their lives. If it weren't for his quick thinking and sudden rush of nobility then they'd all have fallen to O'Malley's clutches once again. And this time would've surely been the last.

Their teams had all gathered outside the mansion as the three walked outside. Breathes were held as Tex, Sarge nor Church said anything. Finally Tex stepped forward and said that O'Malley, or Omega as some called him, the AI was dead. At the confirming nods of both Sarge and Church all soldiers broke into sudden, and completely out of character, cheers accompanied by jumping in Donut and Sister's cases.

The ship was damaged beyond repair therefore their sole method of transportation was the Red's warthog. No one was particularly looking forward to a ride back to the bases squished into a tiny vehicle, especially when Donut volunteered himself to sit on somebody's lap. But Sarge gave them an ultimatum. Get in the damn warthog or wait here to be picked up.

None of the Blues or Tex wanted to wait. Besides Sarge would probably never come back for them anyways so piling into the vehicle was their only option. So the four Reds, the four Blues, the freelancer and the now newly nourished, thanks to Donut, alien baby got into the warthog.

The drive back to the canyon went by surprisingly quick. Everyone engaged in idle chatter, despite armour colour differences, and before anyone knew it they had reached Blood Gulch. Sarge maneuvered the Warthog down a cliffy ramp and parked it in the middle of the canyon. He turned to face the Blues who had just clambered out of the vehicle.

"Well Blues, this is where you get off. The very second we both step foot in our bases we will all revert to our old ways despite they way we all worked well together back in the mansion." He told them.

"We wouldn't have it any other way." Church said gratefully. They never actually fought as much as they used to. Even though Sarge denied it they all got along fairly well. "Thanks for all your help."

"Anytime…scumbag." Sarge laughed and sped off towards the Red camp. Church shook his head yet smiled to himself. Some things would never change. The other Blues plus Tex called out their own 'thank you's as the Reds disappeared into their own base. Once they lost sight of them the four walked back to their own base in silence until Tucker decided to break it.

"So everyone…O'Malley's dead." He said awkwardly.

"Yes…yes he is." Church agreed. Nothing else was said. They all walked into their own respective bunk areas.

"I'm tired now. G'night everyone." Caboose yawned and started walking towards his sleeping area as the other three replied.

"I agree. I'm going to hit the sack now too." Tucker said and walked into his own area. Sister yawned loudly before passing out right then and there hitting the floor with a loud thud.

Church and Tex just stared at her for a moment before turning to each other. Neither had really spoken since the big incident from earlier. There were still some things that they each wanted to say to each other yet didn't really want to just yet.

"So you going too? It's been a busy day." Tex asked.

"I'm not tired. I think I'm just going to go sit outside and think for a bit." He said dully before turning and walking out the door, not waiting for a reply.

He walked up to a secluded hill behind the Blue base. It had been a _very_ long day indeed. Definitely not something he wanted to repeat anytime soon. Sighing he took off his helmet and laid it on the ground beside him. He sat down and let his aching muscles rest for the first time in what seemed like decades. A rare breeze ran through his hair, lifting it slightly. He let out a content sigh as he closed his eyes to enjoy it. When he reopened them he saw a black armored soldier standing in front of him with her own helmet off. Silently she laid her helmet down and sat down beside him. Neither said anything, they just sat there in the thick silence. Finally Church spoke up with something that had been bothering him.

"Why didn't you tell me what you were going to do?" He blurted out.

She blinked her eyes slowly. She paused before answering him, selecting her words carefully.

"I didn't want you to object to the plan. O'Malley had to be taken out but I didn't want to put any else's life in danger so I just told you all to listen to me. If you had tried to stop me the entire plan would've been ruined."

He nodded but she could tell that he didn't truly accept her answer. She sighed. "Church it was for everyone's good."

"Was it now." He replied.

"Yes. Stop being such a child. I've been chasing O'Malley for such a long time and if everything was ruined earlier because of one person not sticking to the plan then it all would've been in vain. That's why I couldn't have told anyone." She explained.

He looked down. He mumbled something she couldn't hear. He started to speak but cut himself off.

"It's just that-" He started but got tongue tied and never finished.

"It's just that what?" She pushed.

He sighed. "It's just that…I've been waiting here a long time. You come and go with little warning and no information on where you're going or what you'll be doing. Sometimes when you don't show up for a long time I start to worry that something really bad has happened to you. That you'll never come back. Yet somehow you always pull through. However through all that secrecy I still managed to think that there was some hope for us. I would always believe that you came back not because of duty but because deep down you actually might care for me. I always wished that you'd tell me what you're always off doing and let me in but so far I've never really succeeded. I'm used to your secrets so earlier when you were being tight lipped I thought that it was just another one of your plans. But as you kept quiet I realized something. You were all doing this out of obsession. You were always too busy with O'Malley on your mind to even spare me a thought. We could never really work because you were always too busy with something else." He finished sadly.

She was silent once again. "Is that what you think?" She asked sadly.

He sighed but just bowed his head. She took that as a yes.

"In a way, you're right. It was like an obsession. Until he was gone I couldn't rest for fear of him taking over me or worse one of you. I never meant to push you out but I had to work alone or else he'd have more targets. I never wanted to tell you earlier because I didn't want you to worry and not take him out when you had the chance. I would've preferred that I be killed then see one of you killed when this was my fight. And when you almost did get killed I kept thinking that O'Malley was going to win after all. I thought he almost took down you with him. And that would've been a much bigger loss than a victory."

He nodded, understanding this time.

"I'm just glad you're okay." He said. "If you had died then something after all these years would've been all in vain. Now that O'Malley's gone I guess I don't have to worry."

"What's that?" She asked curiously.

"My feelings for you. I never would've gotten to tell you how I truly feel." He said.

She was touched. She didn't think that he had still felt that way after all this time. She had been the one to make the first move in the hospital when Caboose had been injured and she never knew what he was going to say afterwards because Tucker had interrupted them.

"I feel the same way. At first I just tried to ignore it and do my job but as I repeatedly came back I knew that there must be a reason. But as I realized that I loved you still I also found that I considered the others my friends. Even the Reds. It may not be clear but you are friends, you help each other. I don't know if you know this but Tucker promised Sarge a chance to beat you up because of the whole mess, Sarge never took it yet. Grif and Simmons could've shot at us when we first saw them but they didn't. They took us back to base in their jeep. And how could we forget that they risked life and limb to help us in that battle. They said they came for 'revenge' on us but they never took their revenge at all." She told him.

He nodded and smiled. She said that she 'loved' him. But he had still listened to the other things she said. It was true after all.

"And what about the Blue team? Have anything about us to say how we preformed out in battle?" He asked her.

She smiled. "As I matter of fact I do. I've never seen a group of people work more like a team. Especially when you nearly fell. Tucker leapt forward, risking his own life, and grabbed onto you. Caboose seeing that you both were going to fall also reached forward and grabbed Tucker's legs. If that isn't teamwork I don't know what is." She said.

He smiled at the thought of his team. _Team_ there was a word that wasn't used to describe this particular Blue base often. But it was nice. They had saved his life. Instead of blowing him up with a cannon or pissing him off they actually saved him.

But another though suddenly crossed his mind.

"You're going to leave again aren't you?" He asked suddenly. Tex wasn't prepared for that question. She was planning on breaking it to him gently.

"Well…yes. I have to go. It's my job. And I have trouble staying in one place at the same time." She finally said.

He just sighed but nodded to her surprise. He accepted.

"I knew you would. But I love you for who you are. It's your nature to suddenly have the urge to fly off somewhere in the universe. I wouldn't have you any other way." He said sincerely.

She smiled once more. She turned to him. "I'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon. But that means that we have tonight to celebrate. O'Malley is dead and unless a giant alien comes and devours the canyon then you don't have much to worry about." She said jokingly.

"Well if we're going to celebrate as you put it shouldn't we start now? After all, we've only got the night." He said as he turned to face her.

She smiled and turned her moon lit green eyes to his own orbs. Her eyes sparkled as the caught the moonlight. Just like how he remembered they did.

"It's only one night. But we could make it the best one we ever had." She said as she ran a hand through his light brown hair.

Back at the Blue base Tucker had stepped outside to take a peek at where they had gone off to. He saw them up on the hill and grinned to himself.

"Bow-chika-bow-wow." He said quietly. He moved back into the base to give the two privacy.

* * *

Grif was dozing peacefully beneath the stars at the top of the base. It had been a long day and he felt that he needed and deserved the sleep. He had actually worked hard to earn the sleep for once in his life.

He was in the middle of a dream where he was in a forest with hammocks hanging between every two trees and was a about to try one out when suddenly-

"GET UP SCUMBAG!" Sarge yelled at him. This was followed by a sharp kick to the side.

Grif did not get up as he was told. He merely rolled around in pain as Sarge yelled random profanities. Finally he managed to lift himself up painfully.

"What the hell was that for?!" He cried. Even though Sarge was wearing a helmet he told tell he was glaring murderously at him so he quickly added on a "Sir."

"I've just been talking to Simmons. I had to bandage up his leg for him. I asked him why you were in the communications room and not with the rest of us fighting. I asked if it was because you were too lazy or too much of a coward."

"And let me guess sir. He said it was because of both." Grif said lazily.

"Wrong soldier! He said it was neither. So in my shock I suggested a whole bunch of other reasons. Because you were too slow, because you can't shoot a gun to save your life, because you-"

Grif cut in. "Okay, okay I get it sir."

"But he said it wasn't any of those. I couldn't possibly figure out what it was then. I had listed everything I could think of."

"And?"

"And he said that it was because you saved their lives earlier and had volunteered yourself to go into the office with the computers to do actual work to help out our side. You gave them directions and told them that O'Malley was close to me and Tucker." He said.

"Yeah. So what?" Grif asked, wondering where this was going.

"So what? So you actually did something worthwhile in your life as a soldier here. You for once didn't act like a lazy son of a bitch. I'm…I'm going to regret saying this but…but you've made me proud of the Red team." He managed to choke out.

Grif smiled to himself.

"Really sir?" He asked.

"Yes really but if you ever make me proud again I swear I'll stick my foot up your ass so far that you'll choke on it." He snapped.

Grif smiled once more. "I wouldn't dream of it sir. I'm going to go do what I do best now, doing nothing. See you around sir."

"Good! Now I can despise you for your lazy ways. See you around scumbag." He called as Grif walked away.

As Grif was walking he laughed to himself. He was almost worried for a second there. Sarge was _proud_ of him. What a revolting thought. Even still, it was a little nice to get the credit he deserved for actually doing important work.

Simmons had been the one to tell him. Maybe he'd go pay Simmons a little friendly visit. Have a nice friendly chat. And then break his sprained ankle for him. After all, what were teammates for?

With this in mind Grif grinned to himself and started running towards the base and to the room where Simmons was resting.

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Authoresses Note: Sorry about the length of the chapter. It was the closing chapter of this story arch. The opening chapter of the next one should be up real soon. Expect it. Thanks for reading. 


	12. Angry Confrontations

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 12 – Angry Confrontations

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: I apologize for the long wait, I truly do. I'm going to try a slightly different update style that will hopefully allow me to get more chapters out at once. I am going to make them slightly shorter, therefore they can be written and edited faster. Please bear with me.

* * *

It had been several weeks since Tex had left Blood Gulch. Things had fallen back into their normal stupor. The Reds would shout insults at the Blues who would return with machine gunfire. Yes, things were back to normal. 

Unfortunately, too normal for the Blue team.

After Tex had left Church had reverted back to his grumpy self, shouting orders and insults at anyone who looked at him. The rest of the Blue team had accepted that this was the way Church would remain until Tex came back, whenever that would be. They all knew he had been acting too good to be true when he was in his 'we're a team' mood. They wished they could keep _that_ Church but that wouldn't happen anytime soon.

Caboose had yet to hear Church refer to him as 'his best friend' to his dismay. Therefore he too was in poor spirits. His poor mood could also be blamed on the fact that he had been in pain. His right side where the shard had been removed was now painful. The wound above his hip was giving him sever pain and he had to resort to limping around.

Church in his darkened mood did not notice anything that went on anymore, he kept to himself in his room mostly, and therefore didn't see anything wrong with anyone. However the other two team members, who had been in perfectly good spirits, showed signs of worry.

"What a bunch of downers!" Sister exclaimed. As her and Tucker sat on a hill facing the Blue base. They could see Caboose limping around outside and Church was no where to be seen, they assumed he was in his room again.

"Church I can understand, he's always been an asshole. But Caboose too, now that's strange." Tucker agreed.

"Do you think something's wrong with him? I mean he was in that prison thing for a long time." She pointed out to Tucker's disbelief that she could actually make connections.

"Maybe…I'll go talk to him and see if he says anything." Tucker said as he got up. "Wait here. I'll be back soon."

He started to walk towards Caboose who was now lowering himself into a sitting position, leaned up against the base.

"Hey Caboose!" Tucker said cheerily, almost too cheerily to be factual.

"Hi." Caboose muttered sadly.

Tucker continued going on as if his teammate wasn't as depressed as Sarge without a gun. "So how're doing? Are you feeling okay?" He pressed happily.

"Sure." Caboose shrugged.

"Are you in any pain?" Tucker asked.

"No."

"But you're limping around, are you sure?" Tucker kept pushing.

"I'm okay." Caboose said wearily. "I have to go and get some orange juice now." He started to get up but his right leg gave on him. Instead he nearly fell backwards before Tucker caught him.

"Okay, I'm not okay." Caboose admitted as he clung to Tucker's arm.

"Here, I'll bring you into the kitchen." Tucker said kindly.

The two walked slowly into the base. Caboose had to keep his weight off of his right side so he leaned onto Tucker for support. It was a slow process but they eventually got to the kitchen where Tucker helped ease Caboose into a chair at the small table. He got up to fetch two glasses of orange juice. Once he sat down across from Caboose he handed him one of the glasses.

"Sorry, we're out of cookies." He said as Caboose took a small sip of his drink.

"That's okay." Was his only reply.

They sat in silence for awhile until Tucker decided to bring up the subject of Caboose's pain again.

"So where are you in pain?" He asked worriedly.

Caboose shrugged. "It's just my right hip and leg. I can't walk on them very well all of the sudden."

"When did this start?" Tucker asked.

"About two weeks ago, sometime after Tex had left and when Church decided not to leave his room except to yell at everyone." Caboose said sadly.

Tucker felt bad for Caboose. Church had told him that he was his best friend but now all he did was yell again. He was practically playing with Caboose's feelings of friendship. It wasn't fair, someone needed to get him to snap out of it before he continued to cause anymore hurt.

"Hang on a second Caboose." Tucker said as he got up from the table. He maneuvered his way through the base until he was standing outside the room where Church had virtually become a recluse. He paused for a second before opening the door and letting himself in. He knew that doing so wouldn't help Church's temper but at the moment he didn't care. He had a job to do.

As usual he found Church lying on his side with his back facing the door. "Church!" He said firmly. "We have to talk."

For awhile there was no answer but then suddenly, "So talk then." Came the reply from the bed.

He didn't seem to be angry but lately he had been so unstable that anything could set him off. Tucker knew that whatever he said next would surely set him off.

"You've got to stop treating everyone like shit again." Now he definitely knew Church would get very pissed.

But to his surprise he was just met with laughter. It wasn't a humorous laugh though. It was slightly cold and Tucker could tell that Church was far from happy or joking.

"What're you laughing at?" Tucker demanded.

Finally Church's laughs subsided and he turned around and swung his legs over the edge of the bed so he was sitting up and facing Tucker.

"What's this about then? Leadership? Am I not being a _good_ leader?" Church taunted.

Tucker stiffened up. "No actually. You're being a shitty leader. If you spent less time in here moping and accepted the fact that your girlfriend would rather be out having some adventure then here with you then maybe you'd notice how much of an asshole you were being." He snapped.

Church's eyes narrowed in anger. "How dare you! You have no right to bring up Tex into this!" He half-shouted.

"The hell I don't! Let's talk about who has 'no rights' then! You have no right to treat us like your friends one day and then dirt the next! We're a team if you haven't noticed asshole! And guess what my thickheaded friend? You're the leader whether you like it or not! Although right now you've been in the dark so much you don't know anything that's going on!"

"What don't I know?" Church hollered. "I know that you're a frigging moron and that I'm the leader of the most useless team in the universe. God you guys suck! Look you can't do anything on your own, you have to come in here and bother me to do EVERYTHING! Can't a get a goddamn break?!" He shouted.

Tucker stood there, numb with anger. "Fine." He said finally. "Go back to your slumber party with your misery. I don't care anymore." He said silently and deadly before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

He turned around to see an even sadder looking Caboose leaning up against the wall across the hallway.

"Caboose-" Tucker started but was cut off.

"I know. He hates us again." Caboose said sadly.

"Let's get back to the kitchen Caboose." Tucker started to lead him but he stubbornly insisted on limping on his own.

Once they got there Caboose sat down but Tucker remained standing.

"How bad does it hurt?" He asked as Caboose winced visibly as he sat down.

"Real bad." Came the reply.

Tucker suddenly remembered what the doctor at the Blue base hospital had said about infections. He suddenly became very worried.

"Caboose, I think it's important that I see that wound of yours." Tucker said.

"How come?"

"Because it's just really important okay." Tucker said. Caboose sighed but started to lift his shirt slightly on the right side. Tucker winced at what he saw.

The flesh surrounding the wound was a violent red colour. The wound and the surrounding area was inflamed and the wound looked a slight greenish colour in the center.

"Jesus Caboose why didn't you tell anyone?" Tucker whispered.

"Because I was hoping that it would just go away if I didn't tell anyone." Caboose whimpered.

"We have to get you to medical attention right away!" Tucker told him sternly. "Wait here." He said before rushing off. He came back shortly after in full armour.

"We're leaving. We're getting you medical attention and then getting the hell out of here." He told Caboose firmly.


	13. Abandoned

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 13 – Abandoned

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: Woohoo! I've got another chapter for you guys. I thought the last one was of decent length, didn't you? I think I'll try and keep them like that from now on. Please enjoy.

* * *

Church had only ventured out of his room when he thought that no one was around for the past couple of weeks. Occasionally he had run into one of his teammates but when they tried to convince him to come and stay out of his room he usually just gave them a snappy retort that shut them up and left them glaring at him or he just ignored them altogether.

It was the morning after he and Tucker had had their fight. It was nothing new in the base. Everyone had become accustomed to Church's absence and the fight that followed when one of them found him.

From his bed he listened for any noises that suggested that one of them was somewhere inside the base. All he heard was the normal sounds of the bases operations. He decided he could risk a trip to the refrigerator. He got up and crept to his door. Opening it slightly he looked around to see if anyone was walking down the hallway.

There was no one around. It was dead silent.

He shrugged and walked into the also empty kitchen. He opened the fridge and found a half full carton of milk. He looked at it for a second before shrugging and grabbing it. He opened it up and took a swig straight from the carton. He finished and put it back and the fridge. As he turned around he noticed something on the table.

A piece of paper was lying in the middle of it. He tentatively grabbed for it and flipped it over to where the writing was.

_Church –_

_The three of us have had it with your recent behavior. Caboose is in dire need of medical attention but you've been too selfish to notice anything other than your own "problems". A Blue ship is on its way to pick us up and take us away from Blood Gulch this morning. And trust me, it won't be returning. _

Church stopped reading the letter for a second and walked outside the base, emotionless. In the distant field he could see a ship, it had already arrived, and there was one Blue soldier being helped on board by another soldier in teal coloured armour. Other soldiers, presumably those who worked on the ship, were loading up baggage into the cargo hold.

_We've called command and they agreed to have us relocated. Have fun trying to defeat the Reds alone. Or just sit in your room and rot for the rest of your life, I don't care. _

– _Tucker. _

Church crumpled up the letter in anger as he watched the ship take off. He tossed it behind his shoulders and spat bitterly on the ground. He was about to turn around and go back inside when the ship turned back and landed in the same location.

"Hmph if they think they can just ran back and think I'll forgive them-" Church began to say as he saw the teal armored soldier dash out of the ship towards the base. But the soldier stopped short of the base. Instead he ran to a hill where Sister had been sitting the entire night after Tucker had told her to wait. He grabbed the yellow soldier by the arm and pulled her onto the ship which promptly took off again.

Church gave the cross between a snort and a loud exhale.

"Assholes." He grunted as he turned around and flipped the middle finger to where the ship had taken off.

* * *

Tucker had seen Church watching them from outside the base. He still hadn't dressed in his armor and he seemingly had forgotten to take care of his personal hygiene all that time he had hidden out in his room.

The paramedics on board were tending to Caboose. They gave him a pain killer and dressed his wound. Unfortunately they said they couldn't do anything for the infection itself until they got back to the hospital and that he was lucky that he even got in.

"It's been really busy lately. You're lucky the doctors could manage to fit in another patient." The paramedic told them as they laid Caboose down onto a cot for some sleep.

"Yeah thanks a lot." Tucker said. He turned to look out the window and watch the stars fly by.

Sister came and sat down beside him.

"So is Caboose, like, going to die?" She asked gravely. Tucker could see the dead serious look she had on her face without her helmet on. He tried his best not to laugh.

"No Sister. Caboose isn't going to die." He told her, but just to be sure he looked over to the sleeping figure on the bed without thinking.

"Okay that's good. How come that mean yelling guy isn't here with us too?"

"Church? Because we left him behind. He wasn't a good leader so we're going to go to a new base to get a new leader." He explained patiently.

"Friends don't leave other friends behind." She told him seriously. He looked into her face to see that she actually seemed upset that he had just taken the team and left.

"Friends also don't treat their friends the way he did." He retorted back.

"But friends should always forgive other friends. It's, like, the law or something." She told him.

Just when Tucker thought he was having an intelligent conversation she ruined it. But before she reverted back to being herself she did, he admitted grudgingly to himself, have a point.

"Well…we'll see okay?" He said with uncertainty. He already knew what would happen if they went back. Church would be very angry and even after 'forgiving' him they'd still have to deal with him because now he knew he could actually get away with it.

"_Landing in at zero eleven hundred hours at Blue Hospital Base One."_ The female pilot's voice crackled over the announcement system. _"That's in fifteen minutes. Flight crew prepare for landing."_

"You'll have to buckle up your seat belts now. We'll strap down your comrade." One of the flight attendant soldiers said as they passed by.

"Thanks." Tucker told him and buckled up his seat belt. Sister was having slightly more trouble and had managed to bind her hands together with hers. Tucker sighed and reached forward to unbind them, this would be a long fifteen minutes.

After freeing Sister's hands from the seatbelt and managing to get it on her safely the ship started descending and smoothly landed. The flight attendants had strapped down the still sleeping Caboose onto a stretcher so that he wouldn't have to walk and waited for the ramp to come down.

"You two can go on ahead inside. They're expecting us so you can just go tell the receptionist that we've arrived. Your friend will be taken to his room by a nurse after that." The flight attendant said.

Tucker nodded and thanked him. He took Sister by the hand and started to lead her into the hospital. When he entered the front doors he noticed it was quite a bit busier than it had been the last time he had been here. There were quite a few people occupying the chairs around the lobby. Some were sporting minor visible injuries.

"Shouldn't we go tell her that we're here?" Sister asked as she pointed to the receptionist.

"Oh right." Tucker said and led her over to the desk. The receptionist looked up as they approached.

"Can I help you?" She asked politely.

"Yes, we've just arrived by ship. We're bringing in Private Michael J. Caboose for medical treatment." He explained.

She started clacking away at the keyboard and looking at her computer screen.

"Oh yes. Here it is. I'll just page the nurse to wheel him away once they bring him in." She smiled and them and Tucker smiled back appreciatively. Sister scowled with jealousy in her eyes.

The front doors opened and Caboose was wheeled in. The nurse who the receptionist had paged had arrived and had promptly taken Caboose away in the same direction he had been taken the last time.

"The doctor will check him over shortly and then call you two okay?" The receptionist asked.

"Yeah thanks." Tucker managed to get out before Sister grasped his arm and started dragging him away. Anywhere away from the receptionist would do.

* * *

Back at the Blue base Church was sitting outside and enjoying the silence. It wasn't often he was alone like this. He could get used to no idiotic teammates running around and bothering him.

He ran his hand along his face and through his hair. He had let his appearance go, he hadn't shaved in so long and his hair felt greasy.

"Oh well. I'll take a shower. Besides it's not like there's anyone here to see me." He said bitterly.

In the distance he could see the Red base. Earlier the four Reds had left on their Warthog, he hadn't known where but they went in the direction of the desert. Church didn't really care though. Their base was empty that meant he could easily take over but he also didn't really feel like it. He didn't see the point in defeating them anymore. He closed his eyes and leaned back on his hands.

The rumble of the warthog broke him out of his thoughts. He opened one eye and saw a Warthog driving back into the valley. Except it was trailing something. He opened his other eye and squinted to try and see what it was. To tell the truth he was slightly curious.

The Warthog pulled up along the Red base and he could see Sarge ordering Grif to unload the item. He could now make out that it was the ship that they had taken to get to the mansion.

He chuckled to himself as he thought of the fight they had had sometime back when the ship had arrived as to who's it had actually been.

It was a scrap piece of junk now though, he didn't care. They could take it and do whatever they wanted with it, he didn't care anymore.


	14. Idiocy

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 14 – Idiocy

Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: Here's the fourteenth chapter. Enjoy. There's no major plot changing events here. It's more for fun. The next chapters will contain more action and excitement.

* * *

"The Doctor will talk to you now." The lady from the front desk said over the phone. Tucker thanked her and hung up. Turning to Sister who was sitting in an armchair in their shared room he nodded and she rose and followed him out of the door. 

While they had been waiting they had gone ahead and managed to get a room. It had simply been too busy to get two rooms close to one another so they just settled on sharing a room with two beds in it. Neither had really minded though.

They made their way through the base. Tucker knew his way around after being there once already so Sister settled for following his lead since he knew where he was going. Tucker followed the directions the receptionist had given him. They took the two of them to an office on the other side of the hospital. After going up several floors they managed to seek out the well hidden office.

Tucker knocked and waited until he heard a male voice say 'Come', before entering with Sister behind him.

"Private Tucker we meet again." The doctor said good naturedly as the two entered the large office single filed.

"Good to see you sir." Tucker said respectively.

"I suppose you're wondering about your teammate. Well I'm glad you managed to get him here while it wasn't busy to the point where we couldn't help him but I wish he had been here sooner. That infection is beyond treatable." He said gravely.

Tucker was shocked. "But what about Caboose? Will he die?" He asked worriedly. Behind him Sister gasped.

"No. You're friend will be fine eventually although the healing process will take quite some time." The doctor explained.

"But I thought you said-" Tucker started but the doctor raised a hand to silence him.

"Allow me to explain. The infection itself is beyond treatable. However we can remove the infection by an operation. We'd remove the infected tissue and replace it with healthy skin through a skin graft. The operation wouldn't occur for awhile due to already booked in operations but we can contain the infection and prevent it from spreading for the time being." He thoroughly explained.

"So he will end up being okay?" Sister asked.

"Yes, your teammate will be just fine." The doctor nodded.

They both let out similar sighs of relief.

"You can go see him now if you'd like. He's awake and the nurse has tended to the infection." The doctor said kindly.

"Thank a lot sir. We appreciate it." Tucker said and Sister nodded her head. The two left the room. They managed to find Caboose's room and luckily for them the door was wide open. Caboose was sitting up on his bed playing with the various controls of the remote that mechanically moved the levels and settings of the bed.

"Oh wow! Can I try?" Sister asked happily. Caboose looked up and grinned.

"Sure!" He said as he handed her the remote and jumped out of the bed. She quickly took over his spot and happily started pressing all the buttons at once.

Tucker turned to Caboose. "Shouldn't you be staying in bed resting?" He asked.

"I'm fine. Really, I am. The nurse came in and put some medication on my infection and it stung a lot. Kind of like a bee sting. But now it's not hurting anymore. And I can get up sometimes." He explained to Tucker as if he were talking to a five year speaking another language.

"Oh, well that's good I guess." Tucker said. In the background Sister was struggling to stay atop the bed which was now vibrating dangerously.

"Yeah. I'm a little hungry now though." Caboose said as his stomach growled.

"Let's go get something to eat." Tucker suggested as he realized how hungry he was. The two walked out of the room oblivious to Sister who was now being thrown back and forth as she clung to the bed with her life. It was rocking back and moving back and forth and jumping up and down like a rodeo horse desperately trying to throw off its rider.

"Will one of you help me please?!" She shouted. But it was too late as they had already made their way out the door and down the hallway.

"Somebody? ANYBODY?" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

One unlucky nurse had just came running in to see what the source of the noise was to see a body being thrown straight at her sending them both flying into a nearby cabinet.

Sister uneasily got up. She brushed herself off. "Well at least this large comfy thing was here to break my fall and keep me from getting hurt."

She looked down to see the unconscious and unmoving body of the nurse.

"Uh-oh."

* * *

Church had just finished his breakfast in silence and was feeling quite happy. He was not missing the bantering and overall stupidity of his teammates right now. Although truth be told he was dreadfully bored and they did provide the occasional entertainment. He pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. 

He walked to the window and saw something that brought a smile to his face. The Red base was sitting right where it always was. Except this time it seemed to be drawing him in.

He grinned. There were still plenty of idiots in Blood Gulch to provide him with suitable entertainment. Though he'd have to go about this the right way. He didn't want to be seen unless he made himself known.

He took off his entire blue uniform and dressed into regular civilian clothes. He had finally shaved off his stubble and washed his hair. As he walked out into the open he felt a lot freer then he did when wearing his uniform. The uniforms and helmets were hot and stuffy. When he walked without them on he could actually feel a breeze running through his hair. Until he took off his helmet and walked outside he hadn't known there had been a breeze in Blood Gulch at all.

He could hear voices coming from around the other side of the base. He quietly walked around the corner to avoid detection. The last thing he needed was a surprised Sarge shooting at him without his armour on and no team to back him up.

He crept along the side of the base to keep out of site. He could see the four of them and they had their backs to him. Just to be sure he kept to the shadows and finally made his way to a boulder whose shadow covered him completely. His body was completely undetectable due to his lack of blue coloured armour. They still had their backs to him at this angle so he was safe from being caught even if they glimpsed in his direction.

"So what should we do with it Sarge?" Simmons asked.

The four were huddled around the remains of the ship they had pulled out from outside the mansion.

"I want thinking we could take it and turn it into a fully automated bomb! That'll blow the Blues right outta the canyon! Hah HA!" He laughed aloud.

From his spot Church just shook his head out of humour. This band of idiots was worse than his own, which he would sure would be returning after awhile looking for forgiveness.

"Uh yeah Sarge, that's great and all but where are we supposed to get the materials to even make a bomb?" Grif asked.

"Shut up snot-rag! I'm getting to that part!" Sarge snapped at Grif and followed with a sharp blow to his helmeted head with the butt of his gun. Grif promptly collapsed and lay on the ground with a groan.

"We could always use its parts to make working kitchen appliances. I don't have any proper materials to cook anything with." Donut suggested.

"Or we could use its parts to replace my own cyborg parts. Mine are starting to rust sir." Simmons brought up.

"Shut up! It's going to be a bomb!" Sarge spat at them.

"Why don't you just fix up the ship? Then we could call it ours after that stupid Blue claimed it as his own when it fell on top of Donut. Once we fix it, then it's ours. We'd have an advantage over them any day." Grif said from his position on the ground.

Sarge gave him another blow to the head but didn't say anything for awhile. He seemed to be contemplating this idea.

"Fine. Thanks to bonehead over here stealing the show it's now going to be a ship. How unoriginal can you get? Anyways since it was his idea, he can do most of the work." Sarge suggested as Grif groaned again, this time not out of pain but out of the thought of doing so much work.

"How about you fix it up and just give it to me straight out? It'll save me the time of single-handedly stealing it off you morons again." Church said as he stepped out of the shadows.

All four swiftly turned around in shock. They looked at the man in civilian attire suspiciously.

"Who in Sam Hell are you?" Sarge snapped as he raised his gun. Church just gave a cocky grin.

"I recognize that voice! That's that guy from the Blues, the asshole!" Simmons blurted out.

"Well spotted." Church said sarcastically.

"Where's your team Blue?" Donut taunted. "Oh right! You don't have one!" He said before laughing loudly.

"Where's your balls Red?" Church snapped back. "Oh right! You don't have any!" He snarled.

"Okay both of you calm down-" Grif started to walk between them to prevent any fights.

Sarge lowered his gun. "Wait? Where's your team?" He asked suspiciously.

"Search me." Church shrugged nonchalantly.

"So they all just left you?" He pressed.

"Yeah. Well they left the alien but I just set it free so it's running around the valley somewhere. Hell if I know where it is." Church said.

"So you're alone?" Sarge pressed further.

"Yes, I thought we established this." Church said in a bored way.

"HA! You're outnumbered four to one! We'll win no problem now!" Sarge cried triumphantly.

"That'll be the day. I've got more competence then the four of you combined." Church said as he examined his fingernails. "Now if you'll excuse me I've got a lunch date with myself. Alone from any form of idiocy. It's nice really. You're missing out." He called as he turned his back and walked away.

"I'll get you Blue!" Sarge hollered once Church was across the canyon. Church smiled to himself. He sincerely doubted it. Sarge had had all the time in the world to shoot him while his back was turned. He wasn't even wearing armour and that made him all the more vulnerable too. Oh well, the idiots were fun to mess with.


	15. Siege

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 15 – Siege

Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue.

Authoresses Note: Sigh…Once again I have let you all down and left you with excuses and apologies as to why my chapter is months overdue again. Sorry about that…School and work took up most of my free time. And I had writers block through Christmas break. But once again sorry. Here's that chapter I owed you (what is it now, two, three months ago?) and I hope you all enjoy.

* * *

Technology is ever changing. Everyday improvements to devices are made, new prototypes are developed, making the must have gadget of two weeks ago obsolete. The hospital security room for example. It was always being updated, new software always being added, new security measures were updated left, right and center. The department of the Blue team whose job it was to create and manufacture weapons, equipment and computers were always gathering information from previous security breaches to make new and impregnable systems, systems that the Red team could not hack. This particular was one such system. 

Or rather it was, until yesterday.

Each team may have a department dedicated to the improvement of technology. But they also had a department dedicated to the breaking, hacking and destruction of enemy technology. The Red Hack Squad, as they called themselves, had recently developed the new generation of hacking equipment. As a way of celebrating this new device they decided to test it on the highly developed Blue hospital base.

The device was modeled after a terran mosquito. It was the same size and could fly around virtually undetected. The long needle protrusion that a true mosquito would use to suck blood was actually a small but powerful drill. It could cut through metal to get the device into computers. Once inside the device would hook itself onto the computers like a parasite. The mosquito's head contained a micro super computer. It was capable of overriding the computers it infected and controlling them, all undetected by the infected computers or their users.

This device went by codename MOSKETOH, pronounced mosquito, which stood for Micro Organism System Killer of Enemy Technology Operation Hacker.

Via remote control from a Red truck several hundred meters from the Blue base it was currently overriding the Blue security system to freeze the security cameras on areas the Reds chose. The Blues monitoring the cameras shrugged it off as a minor computer freeze and, just as the Reds had hoped they would, restarted the system. The second that the computers and cameras went offline MOSKETOH made sure that they stayed off and the Red commanders gave the order to attack the base.

From all entrances Red soldiers filled up the hospital base taking all Blue personal completely by surprise and allowing them no time to compose themselves. Patients were removed from their rooms, although those in intensive care were allowed to stay. The Reds weren't looking for a capture base and leave no survivors victory. They were looking for a bargaining chip. Armed with their new technology they might have a chance at forcing the Blue army as a whole to surrender so that this war could finally end. It had been going on far too long and both sides were taking heavy death tolls. It was time to say enough was enough.

The patients removed from their rooms were to remain with medical staff so that they could still receive care. The same went for those in intensive care. However, both groups were to remain isolated from the rest of the Blue soldiers. The Reds were hoping they wouldn't have to use the method of cutting off the injured from medical attention but they were prepared for resistance from the Blue head base and prepared for possibly having to use that as another bargaining chip, surrender or your injured are separated from doctors.

They were hoping it didn't come down to that though.

The Red commanders and their communications officers were currently trying to get a hold of the Blue commanders to talk about their demands. They needed to do it just right so that the Blue's didn't find out where they were exactly and end up sending a large number of Blue soldiers and weapons.

The Red soldiers who had infiltrated the base were currently gathering all the healthy Blue soldiers who were just staying at the base. Once they were all removed from their rooms they were under heavy guard in one of the large gyms. Red soldiers surrounded them and there was no chance of any escaping the main room. A small group went around to check that all the Blue's registered at the base who weren't patients were present.

That's where the problem started.

The Red in charge of making sure all Blue's were accounted for frowned. And then he made his group double check the numbers. And then a third check. After the third check he knew there was no mistaking it. He picked up his radio.

"Sergeant Lyons. We have a problem." He said hesitantly into the mouthpiece.

He prepared himself against the backlash of his bad-tempered sergeant. Angry curses and insults spewed from the radio.

Sergeant Lyons had been less than impressed to find out that two Blue's and one Blue patient had evaded capture.

* * *

Caboose, Tucker and, eventually after she had found them, Sister had been in the cafeteria just before the Reds entered the base. Tucker may have felt disgruntled at the time but if it were not for Sister feeling queasy after her bed-riding experience they would have been caught with the rest of the Blues. It could be said that the hospital food is what truly saved them. Sister was already feeling nauseous but as soon as she saw the grotesque food, even worse then back in Blood Gulch, she couldn't help but run out of the room clutching her stomach and holding a hand over her mouth. 

Tucker sighed, would he ever get to eat something? But he and Caboose dutifully followed her out of the cafeteria.

Somehow by sheer luck they avoided all infiltrating Reds. And somehow by sheer stupidity they failed to notice that the base had even been attacked. Everywhere the Reds had been they arrived right after. So they had been in the right places at the right times.

Once Sister had found a good substitute for a toilet, Tucker's bed, she allowed herself to be sick.

"Argggg! Sister what the hell?!" Tucker shrieked.

"Sorry." She replied sheepishly.

Tucker bit his lip, it wasn't her fault really, well it was but he could afford to be a little gentler. "No, that's okay. Sorry I yelled." He apologized.

"That's alright."

While they were alone in Tucker's room, just the three of them talking was just when Sergeant Lyons had issued a search party to find them. It was also the exact moment the three realized just how hungry they were. Sister's stomach had settled by that point luckily.

"Hang on guys, let me just call down to the cafeteria to see if they're still open. If not it's vending machine candy for dinner." Tucker said while Caboose and Sister cheered, they sincerely hoped the cafeteria would be closed.

"But maybe we'll get lucky and they'll deliver it down here for us, we could pay them." Tucker suggested as he picked up the phone. Sister and Caboose groaned.

Tucker dialed the number to the cafeteria. After several rings a disgruntled sounding male picked it up.

_"Hello?"_ A voice from the other end growled.

"Yeah hey. This is Private First Class Tucker and I was wondering something. Are you guys open right now?"

_"Excuse me?"_ The voice said, sounding surprised.

"Are you open? My friends and I wanted to get something to eat. Or is it possible to get some room service at all?" He asked sincerely.

_"Look private I don't know who you think you are but this is not the sergeant to be asking for any food. You hear me?"_ He snarled over the phone.

"Oh sorry sergeant. I must've dialed wrong." Tucker looked down at the phone after he hung it up.

"Ooops. Must've gotten a hold of some sort of training room. That guy sounded pissed." Tucker told Caboose and Sister. He picked up the phone to redial the number when it started to ring abruptly.

* * *

Sergeant Lyons went down to the cafeteria, the current meeting place of the Red leaders, to deal with the situation at hand, the three missing Blues. To say he was displeased was a huge understatement. He was completely furious. He announced his arrival by angrily shouting at the soldier who had first called him to tell him the news. After nearly shouting himself hoarse he called for a search party. 

But before he could get to his second order of business, finding out which idiot was in charge of making the infiltration plan, the cafeteria phone rang. Being the current highest ranking Red present he angrily picked it up.

"Hello?" He growled. The conversation that followed left him even more annoyed than he was to begin with.

"Look private I don't know who you think you are but this is not the sergeant to be asking for any food. You hear me?" He snarled over the phone before throwing the phone down into its receiver.

The other Reds looked on curiously.

"You! Go check the system and find out who this Private First Class Tucker is." He snapped at the nearest Red at a laptop who promptly got to work, his keyboard clacking furiously.

"How dare he order me for room service." He fumed. "When I find out who he is I'll have him stripped of his rank for his disrespect and for being a slacker. Our orders were clear, we were not hear to order room service!" He shouted, a large vein bulging in his temple.

"Excuse me sergeant." The soldier with the laptop said timidly.

"What?!" He snarled.

"Well…there is no…Private First Class Tucker. At all. Our database indicates that there is no Red soldier by the name of Tucker." He said sheepishly.

Just as Lyons rounded on the shaking Red a voice from the doorway called out.

"Sergeant! I've identified the three missing Blues! There's a Michael Caboose, a Sister Grif and a Lavernius Tucker." He informed the fuming sergeant.

Lyons looked blank for a second before realizing what had just been said.

"Get me that number! NOW!" He commanded and in seconds a phone was placed in his hands, the number of Tucker's room on the screen.

"This is why this base should have video phones." One Red mumbled to the other.

* * *

"Hello?" Tucker answered.

_"Tucker? Tucker is that you?"_ The voice from before asked him hurriedly.

"Er yes, sergeant. This is Tucker."

_"Oh thank God! I made a mistake in the last phone call. Turns out we do have room service. What would you, Caboose and Sister like?"_ He asked sweetly.

"That's really nice of you to ask sergeant. But it seems like you're really busy down there so we'll just come on down ourselves. Thanks again." He replied.

He hung up and then turned to his friends. "Come on guys, we can go down now." The two looked put out at the fact that they wouldn't be getting vending machine candy but followed him out of the room nonetheless.

When they exited the room Tucker realized something.

"Wait a second. How did he know I was with you two?" He asked aloud.

Meanwhile on the other side of the base Lyons was angrily shouting at his search party to get down to Tucker's room as fast as they could.

* * *

At the same time in a lonely valley located a few planets away Church sun was tanning on the top of the base. He was lying with his eyes shut but heard the clunk of a piece of machinery hitting the ground. 

"Sheila stop jumping." He said sleepily, not realizing the improbability of that happening.

"That was not I Church. It appears a ship controlled by Tex has just landed into Blood Gulch." Sheila's mechanical voice sounded.

"That's nice…Wait what?" He asked as his eyes flew open.

Sure enough Tex was getting out of the ship and walking towards the base.

* * *

Authoresses Note: Well there's your chapter. Finally. I realized I shouldn't make any promises but I'll try and have the chapters out quickly. TRY that is. It all depends on school. Once again I apologize. 


	16. Hope in the Distance

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 16 – Hope in the Distance

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story.

Authoresses Note: I am so very, very late with this. Please accept this chapter as an apology… Thanks for all your continued support. I've already got the next couple of chapters outlined and I promise that there will never be a wait even close to that long ever again.

* * *

"Tex! You're back!" Church exclaimed happily.

He ran forward to embrace her, arms open wide. She was still wearing her usual black armour and helmet. She turned her armoured head to look in his direction and raised her arms when she saw him coming. Church was just close enough to wrap his arms around her, when suddenly he was hit full force in the face by a freight train.

….Or at least what felt like one.

As he lay on his back, wondering why the hell there was a train running loose in the valley, Tex lowered her fist.

"You're a rotten bastard Church!" She hissed at him furiously. She removed her helmet to reveal one of the angriest expressions that Church had ever seen her wear.

Church slowly got to his feet, gingerly touching the tender flesh around his eye. "What the hell was that for?!" He exclaimed angrily.

That was the wrong thing to ask apparently. Tex's eyes blazed as he asked this and wasted no time and walloping him in the gut. Church fell backwards, clutching his stomach, and completely winded. Now instead of lying on his back, he curled into the fetal position. Tex took no notice and began shouting at him.

"Here I am, just doing mercenary work in the universe, when I get called to do a job by a new client. He says to me, 'Hey aren't you friends with them fellas from Blood Gulch?'. And I say, 'Yeah, what's it to you?'. See, I didn't really want clients knowing too much about me so I was curious as to how he knew. So he tells me that he met a couple of Blues from Blood Gulch when he was visiting a friend in that Blue's hospital base. Turns out they left because their 'leader' was abusing his power and didn't pay enough attention to his teammates to know that one of them was getting very sick. It also turns out that they recommended me to help him out with his job."

When Church had recovered enough to speak he managed to say, "Well, at least it was nice of them to get you some work." Tex raised her foot above his crotch. He instinctively curled up and shut up. She lowered it slowly back to the ground.

She growled, "I don't care about the work! It's the fact that I heard that you were being a dick that worries me! Though, I can't say I'm surprised at all Church. It's so like you to do something like this and I can't believe I allowed myself to believe that you had changed. Those weren't just your teammates, they were your friends. They looked up to you and you let them down!" She was shouting now. Church couldn't do anything except avoid her gaze like a puppy being told off.

"Listen…I know I was a dick. It's just that…I missed you and I was blind to everything else." He said weakly. Even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew how lame they sounded.

Tex seemed to realize it too, and she didn't look impressed. She narrowed her eyes coolly. "That is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard. You just keep sitting here on this rock of a planet, getting fat and playing with your dick. I've got to go set things straight."

Church got to his feet once more. "No wait! Let me come with you. I can….I can help you." He pleaded as she boarded her ship.

"No, you'd only get in the way. There's no room for a selfish bastard on this mission." She said in a cold voice.

The ships doors sealed shut, just as she finished, so that Church's last image was that of her staring at him in an unimpressed way. The ship's engines flared up and blasted off from Blood Gulch.

The noise of the engines drowned out the cries of the lone soldier, who was just realizing how alone he truly was.

And it was his entire fault.

He got on his hands and knees and sobbed until he couldn't find the strength to get up again. The base seemed much farther away than it actually was. Church couldn't bring himself to crawl the distance. Instead he remained where he was, and passed out.

Earlier that day, the Reds had watched a ship land and then take off shortly after it had arrived. Sarge couldn't be entirely sure, but he swore he heard someone yelling.

To his old ears it had sounded like, "I can change! Oh please, I CAN CHANGE!"

But then again, maybe not.

* * *

The door to Tucker's room crashed open as Lyons and his search party entered the room.

"Where is he?! Search every nook and cranny until will find their lowly blue carcasses!" Lyons bellowed at his men.

After the room was overturned one of the slightly braver Reds faced Lyons. "Sorry sir, they're not in here." He informed the still raging Sergeant.

"Listen to me, you useless heap of hydrocarbons, you are going to search every last room in this Godforsaken place until you find all three of them! YOU HEAR ME MISTER?" He shouted in the Red's face.

"Yes, sir." The Red said to Lyons's retreating back as he stormed off. "Asshole." He added once he was out of earshot.

The Red turned to the other men. "Alright, you all heard the man. Let's get to it. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get that Neanderthal off our backs."

They spread out in pairs and thoroughly searched the place. They searched every training facility, every hospital ward, and every residence. But search as they might, they found no sign of Caboose, Tucker or Sister. Still, they knew by the records that Caboose was still a recovering patient. They'd have to give up sooner or later, or else their friend would be in serious trouble.

"Man," Tucker exclaimed, "This place is like a ghost town all of the sudden."

Caboose stopped dead in his tracks with a worried look crossing his face. "Ghosts?" He said in a questioning voice.

"Just a figure of speech." Tucker explained, rolling his eyes.

But he was right, the three had been walking for what seemed like ages. They hadn't found anyone who could help them find food. They had ended up avoiding the cafeteria with the disgusting looking food in hopes that one of the smaller canteens would be open. Unfortunately, the few they had passed had been closed. They had to keep looking.

"This is weird guys." Sister said aloud.

Tucker nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we haven't seen anyone at all. You'd think that we'd at least run into _someone_."

"No, not that." Sister in a way that Tucker had suggested something stupid. "I could've sworn I put underwear on today. But I guess not."

Caboose coughed in an embarrassed sort of way. Tucker was about to make a sexual joke when Caboose suddenly cried out.

"Uh-Oh!" He near shouted as he ran to the window they had just passed.

"What?" Tucker asked, irritated that he couldn't comment on Sister's lack of underwear.

"Um, you guys? Since when did our side get new ships?" He asked nervously.

"New ships? You mean they finally replaced our old pieces of-" Tucker broke off as he looked out the window and was greeted by a view of what looked like a fleet of bright red ships.

"Oh shit." Was all he could say. The three stood there, looking outside for some time.

"We've got to get the hell out of here." Tucker said. "Now."

He grabbed Caboose and Sister by their collars. "Come on. We'll find a way. They know we're here, that explains the phone call earlier, but they don't know where we are or else they would've caught us already." He managed to get Sister to move but Caboose wouldn't budge. "Arg, move it Caboose!"

Caboose stood, looking out at the ships, unmoving. He finally turned his blue eyes onto Tucker. "No."

"What the hell Caboose? What do you mean 'no'?" Tucker asked angrily.

"No." Caboose repeated. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Caboose, I'm trying not to lose my patience here. But seriously, this is crazy. We are possibly the Blue teams only chance of survival. We have to escape and alert our superiors." He tried to explain while tugging at Caboose.

Caboose swiped Tucker's hand away. "What about the other people here Tucker? There are sick and dying people that need help! We are their only chance. We have a better chance of helping them fight back from within than we do from escaping! You can go, but I'm staying. This is a hospital, _our_ hospital, and those Reds are not going to do the same thing to the people here that they did to me!" He said angrily, his eyes blazing with cold fury.

Tucker stopped. Caboose was right. They had to help from within. It was their responsibility.

"I'm not leaving Caboose." Tucker said, finally, "We're a team. We're in this together."

Sister nodded in agreement and cried out, "Yeah!"

Tucker looked around, there was still no one in sight. "Okay, but seriously, when did you become so smart? How did you come up with everything you just said?"

Caboose looked confused. "What? What did I just say?" He asked.

Tucker shook his head good-naturedly. Some things never changed, Caboose's memory was still as bad as ever.

"Can we get orange juice?"

Oh yes, some things never changed.

Tucker looked back up. "No time Caboose. We have to go find the control room and alert our superiors. Then, we have to go find our armour and some weapons."

They ran in the direction of the control room, where they knew a radio was held. They looked around every corner in the process, and hoped that they weren't being followed. Tucker was leading the way when suddenly he ran past a corner and heard a voice coming from the other side.

"Now we have to go and infiltrate the control room and contact the Blue authorites. Communication lines have been left open so as not to arouse-" Lyons was just coming around the corner, talking with another Red Sergeant. Unfortunately, Tucker was going much too fast to stop and he crashed into a heap with the two Reds.

"-suspicion." Lyons finished, looking slightly dazed.

Sister and Caboose saw the pile-up ahead. But, being Sister and Caboose, and therefore having the combined sense of a cabbage, they forgot to stop and ended up joining the tangled pile.

Once all parties had been separated, Lyons came back to his senses. "It's you!" He shouted. "Guards! Get them!"

Two passing guards came running at Lyons's call. Unfortunately, they never made it as far as the group of five because a grenade went off at their feet. The smoke cleared to reveal a black armoured figure walking up towards them. She raised her gun as Lyons and his partner tried to escape. Unfortunately for them, she was a good shot and they never even made it to the next corner.

"Tex!" Caboose exclaimed, "How did you find us?"

Tex lowered her weapon, "It wasn't easy." She admitted. "I had no idea that this hospital was under Red command. They fired down my ship as I got close. Luckily I managed to escape without them noticing and made it here just in time."

"Very lucky." Tucker agreed. "Err, are you alone?" He asked.

Tex made an impatient noise. "Do you see anybody else?" She asked irritably, although she knew full well about whom he was referring to.

"Ah, right. Well, we've got to get to the control room." Tucker pointed out. Tex just nodded and took the lead. It was best that she go first seeing as she was fully armed.

Caboose looked downcast. He missed Church. Everyone said that Church was a jerk but Caboose knew that he really wasn't. He was his best friend, he told him so. Besides, if he was such a jerk than why did he come back to rescue Caboose when he was being held hostage?

They made it to the control room without incident. They knew that they only had a brief amount of time before some Reds came and found the bodies. Besides, it was already known that three Blues were loose on the base. Hopefully they could alert some help before it was too late.

Tex opened up a line of communication. After a few minutes she was able to radio into the Blue headquarters.

"We read you Blue hospital base one. Go ahead." A female voice came over the radio.

"Yes, this is Private First Class Lavernius Tucker. This is a little bit odd, but the hospital has been completely taken over by Reds and there's only four of us who've managed to escape them. Please, you've got to help." He pleaded.

The radio was silent for a moment.

"You said that the base has been taken over by Reds?" The voice asked.

"Yes, as in the Blues no longer have control." Tucker clarified.

"And the Reds definitely have control of the base?"

"Yes, didn't I just say-"

"As in, there is no hope for the Blues?"

At this point Tex grabbed the radio angrily. "YES! OKAY? YES! THE REDS DEFINITELY HAVE CONTROL OF THE BASE! THE BLUES HAVE NO HOPE AND WE ARE ALL DOOMED! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? OR DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT FURTHER?" Tex boomed over the radio.

There was another pause. "I was just making sure." The voice sounded irritated.

"Do I need to emphasize the importance that you do something?" Tex hissed over the radio.

"No. Not at all, this is a very serious matter and I could not begin to explain how important it is that someone do something." The voice said.

"Really?" Tex asked. "Are you doing something?"

"Erm, what?"

"Are. You. Doing. Something?" Tex asked, very slowly.

"Why would I be doing something? I can't come down there and fight. I'm a radio operator."

Tex bellowed incoherently into the radio.

"Okay! Okay, I'm contacting all available units. Can't you see this is no time to be shouting?" The voice asked. "And I've just alerted the highest command in the Blue section.

Tucker managed to wrestle the radio from Tex's grip. "Thank you." He said gratefully before putting it back on it's perch.

The four stood in silence for a brief moment, each wondering what they could do next. Well, Sister was picking belly button lint, but besides her, the rest were thinking.

* * *

Church managed to pull himself back into the base at some point. He didn't really recal doing it, but all he knew was that he woke up in his bed.

With an alien atop his chest, trying to wake him off.

"Get off me, you silly little monkey." Church warned him. But still, he placed him on the ground gently. He was the only connection he had left to his team. He knew that Tucker would return for him eventually. And maybe then he could make amends. Or at least try to.

Junior tugged at his pant leg and pointed towards the main area. Church could faintly hear the video screen's call alarm going off. He walked towards it and flipped it on. A member of the Blue high command filled the screen.

"Private Church." The man in the important looking uniform stated.

"Admiral." Church replied. He suddenly felt stupid for looking so unkempt. But the admiral didn't bother pointing it out.

"We've got trouble son. There's an issue down at the Blue Hospital Base. Can you and your team get down there?" He asked.

Church looked up sharply. "Er, Admiral, my team _is_ at that base. What's going on?" He asked worriedly.

The admiral looked sympathetically at the private. "I'm sending a ship for you. They'll explain it all to you there."


	17. A New Ally

Don't Let Me Down: Chapter 17 – A New Ally

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Authoresses Note: Well I'm sure we can all agree that this chapter was out in better time. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

"I am the world's biggest jerk. No, scratch that thought. I am the _universe's_ biggest jerk." Church thought angrily to himself.

And sadly, Church knew that his friends would probably wholeheartedly agree with him on that one. Well, if they would even call him their friend anymore. He had to have been the absolute worst teammate, and friend, that the Blue team had. Tex was right; his excuse was lame and pathetic. And what made everything so much worse was that he was not only causing emotional damage to his team, but to one member he was also causing physical damage. Every time he thought of his team he felt guilt so powerful that he wanted to cry. Especially when he thought of Caboose.

Poor Caboose. Was he doing better? Worse? How could Church have been so selfish that he couldn't even bother to check up on his teammate? Especially after all Caboose had been through. Church's stomach plummeted at the thought of Caboose taking a turn for the worse. If anything had happened to Caboose because of Church's neglect, he'd never be able to forgive himself. Ever.

Church stood at the top of the Blue base, dressed in his full armour. He had his gun in one hand, leaning against his leg, as he waited for his pickup. By his feet was a small bag that contained several survival items. He was extremely nervous as to what the issue was. It hopefully wasn't anything to do with Caboose, otherwise the Admiral wouldn't have asked for his team to get down there. But it sounded serious and Church was worried. He had no idea what could be waiting for him.

He looked up as a large transport space ship began its descent towards the Blue base. It landed just in front of him. The door closest to him opened and a ramp unfolded itself. Church picked up his gun and the bag and walked towards the ship. As he entered, he realized that he would look awfully stupid entering by himself. Still, he walked onwards, trying not to feel self-conscious.

He was greeted by another Blue when he stepped onboard, presumably someone who worked on the ship.

"You must be Private Church." The Blue said as he checked a list he had in his hands.

"Er, yes. That's me. Are you the stewardess? Could you tell me what's going on here?" Church asked.

The Blue was wearing a helmet so it was hard to tell, but Church could've sworn that he was offended.

"Stewardess's are female. Besides we prefer 'flight attendant'." He said in a disgruntled sort of way.

"Whatever, could you tell me what's going on?" Church asked, not really caring about what was what.

The Blue's voice took on a scorned attitude. "No, the general in charge of this group will be out shortly to brief all of you."

The ramp retracted itself and the doors to the ship shut. Church continued to stand in front of the stewardess-flight attendant. "Well, aren't you going to show me to my seat?" Church asked sweetly.

The Blue made an angry noise and angrily stormed to the back of the ship. Church followed him. There were many seats filled with many Blue teams. There were only a few empty seats left so Church assumed that they would only have a few more pickups to do. The Blue stopped in front of an empty row of seats. Church assumed the window one.

"Thanks," Church said to the angry retreating form of the Blue, "…stewardess." He finished with a smirk beneath his visor. The Blue stopped dead in his tracks, but seemed to think twice about turning around. Instead of coming back and ripping Church's head off, he decided to resume his post at the doors. Church smirked even more and proceeded to place his hands behind his head in a relaxing way. He looked out the window as they took off and eventually Blood Gulch became just a speck in the sky.

There was another team slightly ahead of him. One of the Blues, the one who seemed to be in charge of this team, was whining. He was wearing sky blue armour.

"God, why did we have to take you along?" He asked in a patronizing way. "You're useless. I wish the admiral hadn't insisted that the _whole_ team be taken. You're more useful to us guarding the base. But then again, you probably would've blown it up."

He was talking to another one of his teammates. This teammate wore a grayish blue set of armour. He didn't respond to the leaders taunting, instead he looked down towards the ground. This looked all too familiar to Church. He was about to get up, and suggest a better place for the gun that was in the soldiers hands to be placed, when three Blue soldiers stepped out of the doors that led to the cockpit. The first two were standard Blue soldiers, probably privates like Church, but the third wore the special armour designated for those who were higher ranked. Church assumed that this must be the general.

In was proven correct when the general began to speak. "We've just picked up the last of our soldiers and now we can continue on to our destination. As you've been told there has been an issue at the Hospital Base One. But you've not been informed the nature of this crisis. At sixteen hundred hours we stopped receiving communication with the base. However, the communication lines were still open so we assumed they were just having a staffing error. But then, we received a radio call. It was from a Blue soldier and he claimed that the base had been taken over by the Reds. However, the nature of the attack is still unclear. Nonetheless, we have to get in there and reclaim our base. Many Blues, both patients and non-patients, are being held there. We can only hope that it's not too late."

The General continued to talk about the mission. Church, however, felt like his insides had just become liquid. His team was being held hostage. Or worse. This was all his fault. Well, not the part about the Reds coming in and taking over. But the fact that his team was even there in the first place was his fault. He should've been with them at least. He should be there, right now, trying to find a way to bust out.

He feared it just wasn't too late.

The General started talking about their plan and told them that they'd be at the hospital base in a half hour. He said that they'd land a little ways away from the base, so as to remain undetected. They'd then find the basement entrance, which was a secret entrance that the Reds wouldn't know about. It was hidden by sand but its exact location was known by higher ranks. They'd come in through the basement and take over the base. However, the tricky part was that they had no idea what the Reds were doing, how many there were, and how to avoid harming any of the possible surviving Blues.

Church sighed, still wracked with guilt. He didn't really care about the General's plan, he had his own personal agenda. Get in, find his team, and then get out of there. He wasn't leaving without then and he wasn't stopping until he found them. And good luck to anyone who happened to get in his way, be it a Red or a Blue.

His bag rolled past his feet. Church looked down in wonder and curiosity. How did the bag roll? Shouldn't it have merely slipped past his feet? He leant down to pick it up and realized just how heavy it was. It certainly wasn't this heavy when he packed it. He must've been too distracted by guilt when he was carrying it on the ship to realize how heavy it was. He cautiously opened his bag and when he saw what was inside his eyes widened.

"Hey you shiz-" The contents of the bag started to say, but Church quickly shut the bag and ran with it into the lavatory. Once he was inside he opened it again, hoping that he hadn't really seen what he thought he saw.

"-no." Andy the bomb finished saying, the very second Church peered inside the bag.

"Andy! What the hell are you doing here?" Church hissed angrily.

"I saw you were leaving and I was all 'Hell no, I'm not staying here by myself' so I packed myself into your bag." Andy explained.

"Goddamnit Andy! Who the hell is going to look after Junior now?" Church asked angrily.

* * *

Meanwhile back in Blood Gulch, Grif had managed to sneak away from Sarge. He knew that as long as he was quiet, Sarge wouldn't find him. He had hidden himself behind one of the large rocks littered on the Red side of the valley. He sat down happily.

"Finally, I can relax without Sarge nagging at me." He yawned and was about to settle down for a nap. Suddenly, something small landed on his lap from above. Grif's eyes flew open and he gave a startled cry. But it was nothing compared to the scream he was about to give.

"BLARG!" The alien cried happily as it found it's former food source.

"AIEEEEEEE!" Grif screamed.

Somewhere, back at the Red base, Sarge had heard Grif's cry.

"I'VE FOUND YOU NOW! HA-HAH!" Sarge cried triumphantly.

* * *

Church didn't look impressed. "Andy, how the hell am I supposed to lug you around? You're a freaking bomb! You're going to stay and wait in the ship. Stay out of sight because I'm going to need to take my bag with me. It's got some survival stuff and some smaller weapons."

"Eh, one problem. I was too big to fit in the bag when you had all that shit in it. So I took it out to make room." Andy explained sheepishly.

"ANDY! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Church hollered. "How do I disengage you? Isn't it something like cutting the green wire?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Andy said slyly. "You see, you're now sitting on a spaceship with a bomb in your bag."

Church paled as this clicked in. "Oh….You wouldn't…Would you?" He asked nervously.

"I hear that they take bombs on ships pretty seriously nowadays. Therefore, I will alert them of my presence before you can say 'Dirty Shizno'. So, how about taking me along now. Hmm?" Andy asked.

Church grunted angrily. "Okay, okay, fine! I'll take you along, happy?"

"Very." Andy said before Church shut the bag on him again. He slung it over his shoulder and made his way back to his seat.

"By the way Andy, you're the shizno." Church mumbled. But Andy remained silent.

Church looked up when he got to his seat. The soldier with the grayish blue armour was sitting in his spot. The same one that he had seen being ridiculed before. Church sat down beside him. As soon as he sat down, the soldier jumped up.

"Oh sorry, I didn't realize someone was here." He mumbled to his feet. "I'll leave now."

Church shook his head and lifted his arm, to prevent him from leaving. "No, you can stay here. Why aren't you with your team?" He asked gently. The aforementioned team was now sitting closer to the front of the ship. It looked like they were talking and laughing amongst themselves.

"They, er, told me to leave them alone and that as long as we were on this mission I was to pretend that I didn't know them." He said all the while looking down at the ground in shame.

Church's blood was boiling with rage as the Blue soldier told him this. Andy's voice piped up from the bag. "Those dirty sh-" He started to say but Church shut him up with a swift kick. A small 'ow' was heard. The soldier looked down at the bag but said nothing.

"That's stupid." Church finally managed to say. "If we can't act like a team then how the hell are we going to pull this mission off?"

The soldier shrugged. "They said I was useless and that I'd only weight them down."

"What's your name?" Church asked suddenly.

"It's Farmer. Private Dean Farmer."

Church was silent for a moment. "Stick with me. We'll be a team." He suggested.

The soldier looked up. Church couldn't see behind his visor but he was sure that the soldier was smiling, he could just sense it. "Really?" The soldier said hopefully.

"Really." Church said. "Now tell me, how good of a shot are you?" He asked.

"Lousy. They don't even let me touch the sniper rifle." He replied.

"How are you with a gun?" Church asked.

"Erm, I shot my Sergeant once. It was my first week there." He said sheepishly.

Church grinned widely. "I like you already."

Farmer laughed. But then spoke up. "By the way, did your bag talk?" He asked curiosly.

"Oh don't mind him," Church said, "That's just my bomb."


End file.
